"Kenya’s worst drought in decades creates humanitarian crisis" PBS NewsHour 1/14/2022
Excerpt
SUMMARY: The worst drought in decades is gripping eastern Africa -- parching landscapes, killing livestock and creating a humanitarian crisis. Driven by climate change, it's also leading to civil strife, as shepherding communities battle each other for scarce resources. Special correspondent Jack Hewson and producer Georgina Smith report from the Wajir province of northern Kenya.
SUMMARY: Many regions in East Africa are at risk of famine for the third time in 25 years. Twenty million people in the war-torn countries of Yemen, South Sudan, and Somalia, as well as drought-stricken neighbors like Ethiopia are at risk. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, on the crisis and relief efforts.
SUMMARY: One year ago, Burundi's president announced he was running for a third term, which triggered a failed coup, protests and a violent crackdown. Hundreds died and at least 220,000 have left the country. Special correspondent Nick Schifrin reports from Nairobi, where some Burundian refugees from the opposition have fled for safety, but instead are being hunted down by men sent by the government.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): It has been one year since Burundi's president, Pierre Nkurunziza, announced he was running for a third term, a move widely considered unconstitutional. His announcement triggered a failed coup, a questioned election, mass protests, and a violent crackdown on the opposition.
Since then, at least 400 people have been killed and 3,500 arrested. More than 220,000 people fled the country. Divisions between Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups have characterized past violence in Burundi, but, on Sunday, Marguerite Barankitse was honored for her work helping Burundian orphans and refugees, regardless of ethnicity. She received a million dollars from an Armenian group. The money will be donated to the organization of her choice.
Still, ethnic identity can be a matter of life or death for Burundians, even those outside the country.
Special correspondent Nick Schifrin, partnering with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, found Burundian refugees 900 miles from home, in Nairobi, Kenya, where they thought they'd be safe. But their enemies have tracked them down.
NICK SCHIFRIN (NewsHour): It's just past midnight. We're in Nairobi, Kenya, and this isn't only a cornfield. This is a kind of protection because, right behind me, there's a house full of men, and all night, every night, two of them are in the field standing guard, using old weapons like a crowbar and a rusty knife.
They are too scared to sleep, and too scared to show their faces. They are Burundian refugees who say they're being hunted.
The men who are guarding the house, can they really defend you from the people who are hunting you?
MAN (through interpreter): The weapons you see here can only be used against the dogs you hear barking. If there were an enemy coming here with a grenade or a machine gun, we wouldn't be able to resist.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Twenty-year-old Arnold is a Burundian refugee. He lives in this tin shack with seven other refugees. It's a 150-square-foot church library.
MAN (through interpreter): We have no mattresses, no food. As refugees, we can't find jobs, and we are scared of being arrested and sent back from where we were.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Where they were was Burundi's capital, Bujumbura. A systematic campaign targeted the government's political opponents, leaving some of their bodies in the street.
The U.N. warns that President Nkurunziza is helping lead the country to a second civil war by transforming politics into ethnic conflict between Hutus and Tutsis. That's the same ethnic divide in Rwanda that sparked the 1994 genocide.
In the last year, 225,000 Burundians have fled the violence to cities they hoped were safe. But, even here, they hide their faces.
Today, here in Nairobi, which of you is afraid?
All of these men escaped from Burundi. Kenyan activist Tom Oketch brought them together to discuss their rights and try to calm their fears.
SUMMARY: In Kenya, corruption and bribery are commonplace in law enforcement and the government. Many police officers seem more interested in keeping citizens' cash than keeping the peace, allowing criminals to get off. Meanwhile, the government has "misplaced" $999 million. Special correspondent Nick Schifrin and producer Zach Fannin report in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Now we continue our series Inside Kenya.
The World Bank says Kenya is growing faster than any other sub-Saharan African country. But there is one major impediment to the country’s continued growth.
Tonight, in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, special correspondent Nick Schifrin and producer Zach Fannin examine the reality of Kenyan corruption.
NICK SCHIFRIN (NewsHour): In Kenya, even the world’s fastest men can’t outrun corruption.
The Rift Valley is known as the Valley of Champions. The best marathon runners are born here and train here.
Mind if I join you?
Hillary Kiplimo runs three times a day. He is tireless and fast. He averages about 4.5 minutes a mile. It’s tough to keep up.
Whoa. He’s good. And that’s slow for him.
After years of training, he finally broke through. He finished third in last year’s Nairobi Marathon.
HILLARY KIPLIMO, Marathon Runner: This is for position.
NICK SCHIFRIN: So, it says number three, because you came in third.
HILLARY KIPLIMO: Yes.
NICK SCHIFRIN: He and his wife thought he’d finally fulfilled his dream of running his way out of poverty. But his dream’s been denied.
So, you got your medal, you got this number three, you got the jersey and you got this, but you never got a cent.
HILLARY KIPLIMO: I never got a cent.
NICK SCHIFRIN: On the results Web site, his name was replaced. And his $3,500 winnings vanished.
So, where’s the money going?
HILLARY KIPLIMO: I think those people, they kept the money.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Athletics Kenya, the race organizers.
HILLARY KIPLIMO: Yes.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Last November, dozens of runners protested at Athletics Kenya. The group has exclusive oversight of all Kenyan athletes.
Kenyans hold records in nearly every distance. They say, as they run faster, Athletics Kenya steals more. Athletics Kenya didn’t respond to a half-dozen e-mails from “PBS NewsHour.” Hillary suspects there’s only way to get their attention.
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BONIFACE MWANGI, Activist: They tear-gassed innocent kids who only wanted to access their playground. Other countries have mafia. In Kenya, the mafia have a country.
SUMMARY: Kenya is the U.S.'s primary ally in the fight against east Africa's deadliest terror group. Its long war against al-Shabaab has taken a heavy toll and there are fears that reprisals from Kenyan security forces against ethnic Somalis are only breeding more enemies. Special correspondent Nick Schifrin and producer Zach Fannin report in a collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): But, first, tonight we begin a series, "Inside Kenya."
The East African nation is the United States' primary ally in the region, and in the fight against the deadly terror group Al-Shabaab, based in Somalia. Al-Shabaab attacks government and military institutions in Somalia, but it has also launched major attacks in neighboring Kenya.
Special correspondent Nick Schifrin and producer Zach Fannin traveled extensively throughout Northeastern Kenya, along the Somali border.
Tonight, with the help of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, we start our series with a look at how Al-Shabaab is targeting Kenya, and how Kenya is fighting back.
And a warning: The story contains images some viewers may find disturbing.
NICK SCHIFRIN (NewsHour): On Kenya's front line against Al-Shabaab, police on patrol are armed like soldiers. They search traditional straw houses, checking I.D.s at the barrel of a gun.
JULIUS KIRAGU, Kenyan Army (through interpreter): The main threat here is the Al-Shabaab. That is terrorism, because they are associated with al-Qaida, and you know what al-Qaidas are.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Officer Julius Kiragu heads Kenya's administrative police in Wajir, only 70 miles from the Somali border. Every night, they search for smuggled weapons and hiding fighters.
JULIUS KIRAGU: They pretend they are selling milk and all these things, but they are waiting for the appropriate time to strike.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Most of his officers are ethnic Somali, like the majority of the local population. Some officers wear civilian clothing and ride around in unmarked cars. They work with local tribal chiefs, like Zein Abdulla.
What kinds of weapons have you found here?
ZEIN ABDULLA, Tribal Chief: There were guns. There were grenades. There were ammunitions and such things.
NICK SCHIFRIN: So, Shabaab has supporters even here?
ZEIN ABDULLA: So, they have representatives at least in every district.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Al-Shabaab has waged a decade-long war in Somalia. In 2011, Kenya invaded Somalia, in a campaign called Protect the Country.
Emmanuel Chirchir was the face of the campaign in Somalia, and on Twitter.
SUMMARY: Al-Shabab, an Al Qaeda-linked militant group based in Somalia responsible for a shopping mall attack in Kenya that killed 67 in 2013, is enlisting more recruits from Kenya than any other country. In the second part of the NewsHour series “Inside Kenya,” young men talk about why they joined.
SUMMARY: Established by the U.N. in 1991 to house Somalis fleeing their civil war, the Dadaab Refugee Camp complex in eastern Kenya has grown into the largest in the world. Some call it a humanitarian disaster, but to its half-million residents, it is both their last resort and their home. Judy Woodruff talks to Ben Rawlence, author of “City of Thorns,” an inside look at stories of survival in Dadaab.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Ben Rawlence, welcome.
BEN RAWLENCE, Author, “City of Thorns”: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, we’re hearing a lot about refugees these days, but you are writing about a group of refugees we hear almost nothing about.
What drew you to Kenya? What drew to you this camp?
BEN RAWLENCE: Well, for nearly 10 years, I worked for Human Rights Watch.
And I first came to Dadaab, this refugee camp, in 2010. And the place just blew my mind. It was a complete shock to me that I hadn’t heard about it before, and, in fact, that this place should still exist. At that time, it was 20 years old. And now it’s 25 years old.
JUDY WOODRUFF: It started out as something much smaller, refugees — one group of refugees. It’s grown into something much bigger and, frankly, much worse.
BEN RAWLENCE: Yes.
I mean, Dadaab is the world’s biggest. The Somali refugees came in 1991. Since then, Somalia has descended into different phases of a civil war, and there have been waves of refugees, more and more coming, until it peaked in 2011, with around half-a-million refugees living in this one place.
It’s a bit like New Orleans. It’s that many people, but spread over 30 square miles. The tents are made of — or the houses are made of tents or sticks and mud. And it’s — there’s no permanent structures. So, there’s no plumbing. There’s no concrete. There’s no running water.
It’s a humanitarian disaster still, even after 25 years. It’s constructed on temporary lines, and yet it’s become permanent.
SUMMARY: With rhinoceros horn now more valuable than gold on the black market, poaching has reached unprecedented levels. Some wildlife preserves in Africa resemble war zones, as rangers struggle to keep pace with poachers, who may have ties to terrorist groups. Daphne Matziaraki and James Pace-Cornsilk, students at UC Berkeley, traveled to Kenya to learn more.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Rhino and elephant poaching has reached unprecedented levels, as the black market price of rhino horn and ivory tusk has skyrocketed.
University of California Berkeley students Daphne Matziaraki and James Pace-Cornsilk traveled to Kenya and found that the trafficking networks are often connected to international terrorist groups and, on the ground, the situation resembles war.
NARRATOR: Ol Jogi Conservancy in Northern Kenya is home to 46 eastern black rhinos. There are 500 left in the world.
JAMIE GAYMER, Manager, Ol Jogi Conservancy: We had two rhinos, I believe, to have been shot with a firearm, and one of those rhinos had its horns cut off.
NARRATOR: Jamie Gaymer manages this rhino sanctuary and protects the surrounding 58,000 acres of land from a major threat, poachers.
JAMIE GAYMER: The enemy who are trying to come and poach our rhinos are becoming more advanced, investing in higher-tech equipment, automatic weapons. Perhaps their own intelligence is quite well-established, and we have to evolve our security in order to combat that.
NARRATOR: Black market buyers from Asia and the United States have driven the price of ivory to $1,000 per pound, and rhino horn used in traditional Chinese medicine and seen as a status symbol to $45,000 per pound, making it more expensive than gold.
JAMIE GAYMER: I don’t know the definition of war, but certainly there is a very advanced enemy who are putting us under considerable threat.
