BACK TO THE ROOTS - A JOURNEY TO WAJIR
27April2021
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| Sunrise in Wajir (photo: ALK) |
It’s a seemingly endless road. Not many people about. An occasional herd of goats and dorper sheep. A couple of camels being driven to another destination. The landscape is almost featureless. Only punctuated by Acacia tress and ‘mathenge’ shrubs along the roadsides.
Birds fly across the road in groups and singularly. Mostly doves and sand grouses drinking from muddy pools of water formed during the previous nights rains. Yes it is supposed to be rainy season; but with global warming the weather is no longer predictable nor regular.
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| Acacia Tree in Wajir (photo: ALK) |
We are enroute to Wajir in North Eastern Kenya. I have a project there – the Al Fatah Waqf project. Abit of history for you – Al Fatah Madrassah is the oldest madrassah in the region. Started in 1948 – it is the source of some of the most learned Imams in Kenya. In fact it is so prominent that most Muslims in the know in Kenya are aware of it. Still going strong and producing learned muslim scholars.
So the waqf committee of the madrassah raised money and bought a plot in Wajir town and decided to build a commercial project to assist the madrassah meet its financial obligations.
The COVID-19 pandemic is in full force. Its devastating the world. We have a partial lockdown in Kenya. 5 counties including Nairobi have movement restrictions. But I have been given a letter allowing travel into and out of Nairobi for the waqf project.
The road upto Modogashe (Modo) is tarmacked fully. The music starts from Modo onwards. Its sandy soil, poorly drained and almost flat so the slightest rain will cause ponding - and flooding within the shortest period of rainfall. The road is rough. The locals openly question whether they really belong to Kenya – they have been ignored for so long...I cannot help but agree!. The drive is long and bumpy.
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| Traditional Somali Hut (photo: ALK) |
Occasionally the roundish traditional Somali huts dot the roadside. These are made out of twigs of the Acacia trees bended into a roundish form and then covered by skin or cloth or plastic chandarua. The floor is rammed earth – flattened and swept clean. Most of the daily life occurs outside the hut; the hut is just used for sleeping and shelter during the very rare rains (we are in semi arid country!). Most of the huts are built near or around some trees. The trees are the main living rooms providing shade from the 40 degree Celsius plus sun. The hut is conveniently and easily dismantled and loaded onto camels and donkeys – the Somali are originally nomadic and move with their livestock in search of water and grazing for their animals. This is however changing rapidly as more and more economic activities reach the far flung lands and open up to western development.
The landscape is subject to flooding during heavy rains. That’s when all the dry seasonal river beds erupt into life. And this is exactly what we fear as we hit the bumpy rough road ….. On the Northern horizon in the direction of Wajir – there are ominous clouds. But I’m not too worried – we are many in the tourist converted Land Cruiser.
I try sleeping to while away some time. Its Ramadhan and I’m fasting. Hunger pangs and thirst are constant companions - and keep reminding me that I am fasting so no negative behaviour (this is the true purpose of Ramadhan). I do dhikr (remembrance of ALLAH) and just in case I’ve forgotten --- a huge pothole reminds me where I am….
We reach Habaswain. We are a third way between Modo and Wajir. Its time to pray; but Dr Ibrahim suggests we don’t stop here because there are too many people who know him and they will just waste our time and hold us back.
But Habaswein has a twist in the tale for me. My wife’s uncle whom i shall just call Uncle or more precisely Amo (as we referred to him) died here amongst his friends. He was a truck owner and the driver of his truck. His job was to buy veggies and stuff from Meru and Nanyuki and transport them to Wajir for a profit. It was a carefree life for him – something like the life in the Wild West for cowboys in America. You didn’t have a boss, you were your own boss. There were no schedules to be adhered to. You had a wife but you conveniently kept her and the kids in Mombasa -- far far away from Nanyuki or Wajir. So there was no questioning as to where you are going, why you are late etc. During one of the journeys up and down the NFD road he suddenly died whilst in Habaswein…. It was a shock to the family as he was a very happy and seemingly healthy man. He wasn’t too old either – probably just shy of 60 years. So his friends in Habaswein informed the family and requested that they be allowed to bury him there … Of course his wife wouldn’t have this and she insisted that his body be brought to Mombasa to be buried in Mombasa. And this is what happened.
So we drive on ….
The next centre is Lagdima. The home town of a close friend of mine Ahmed Hussein – popularly known as 77. We stop for prayers.
A large iron roofed and iron walled structure is our stop point. This is Lagdima Hotel. The floor is rammed earth. The structure is about 20m x 20m in dimension. It has 2 tables – one is occupied by 3 men having lunch (they are most likely not Muslim since they are not observing the ramadhan fast)
In one corner of the structure are plastic mats with bare mattresses and some bed sheets. Another corner has two beds and again bare mattresses. So this one large room is the combination of hotel rooms for sleeping and the restaurant and the lounge and all combined into one large iron sheet structure. The roof is high – well done! We are in hot country anyway! We go through the large room to the rear side which is shaded from the sun. There is a fine breeze in the shaded area. Its pleasant to be on your feet and to be able to stretch.
We pray on a plastic sheet and hit the road once again.
The rough road is relentless. We pass a few settlements. There is hardly any traffic on the road; an occasional lorry trudging slowly and another empty one returning from the wild NFD of Kenya …
We trudge along the rough road …. Now we are hardly doing 30kph. I am tired. My body is aching. And I’m fasting so its tough. But I’m not the only one fasting. The driver (Umar) and Dr Ibrahim are also fasting --- so no room and excuse for me to complain. The road is full of large & deep puddles of water. We have to go through these and every time we reach one of these, the drivers slows down to almost halting. He would then engage gear 1 and slowly go into the puddle which sometime looked like almost waist deep. But I’m not to worried because we are in a Land Cruiser – the best car for such terrain.
Presently we reach a fast flowing river – in the desert
yes!. All the rivers in NFD are seasonal. But when it rains even if it is 200km
away – then the rivers flow and become treacherous. So we have to now go
through a fast flowing river over a concrete pan … We don’t know the depth. We don’t
know whether there is a deep hole into which we may get stuck and then swept
away. But as it happened our driver Umar was an expert and knew exactly
which part of the river was the safest.
And after an agonizing 2 minutes we dive into the river and make it safely
across ….
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| The River Crossing (photo: ALK) |
Dr Ibrahim tells me with pride – Welcome to North Eastern
Province!
Its now almost dark. The sunset is beautiful. But my mind is no longer on beautiful sceneries --- I am hungry and thirsty and it is now time to break the ramadhan fast – which is supposed to be at 626pm.
The time to break fast reaches as we enter Wajir Town …. more to follow! Watch this space
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| Typical Semi Arid Landscape (photo: ALK) |
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