Low wage while working in a high risk area.

Picture Caro Katana

Story Caro Katana, kwale. 

Journalism is a calling,so they say.
In Kenya there is a saying: if you want to be rich, become a tenderprenuer. if you want to be famous, get into the entertainment industry and if you want to remain poor be a journalist.

Take an example of a journalist working in bandit prone areas, covering terrorism stories and earning  Kes 5,000 equivalent to 41.68 dollars at the end of the month?
Mark you...her safety and security not even guaranteed from any party...be it the bandit or the police...but at the end of the day he/she is expected to inform the populace what is happening.

For Maureen Ndamwe...that was the life she was used to for 9 years while working for a local radio station in Turkana County.

To her, how she managed through those years still amazes her.

 
Turkana county in Kenya is known for 4 things... 1. Being the only place in Kenya where the government has struck oil....2. Being the face of ravishing famine every time the country experiences drought...3. The land with the largest underwater aquifer in Kenya...and 4. tribal clashes occasioned by cattle rustling and bandit attacks among the pastrolists communities.

On her first assignment Ms Ndamwe says she managed to bring to public a story about cattle rustlers who had maimed and killed people in Turkana East.

For her, she believed by publishing the story, the government would be prompted to take action to stop the attacks...little did she know she would face her own battles.

"There is also at times when you go to the field you are like you don't have a place to sleep the only place you can lay your head or body after that tiresome day that hot day is under a tree you have never slept under a tree ,it's your first time maybe and you are like sleeping under a tree, maybe that we call "mkeka" is not around, maybe you knew how it will be and you carried your bed sheet that is what you will sleep on and then wake up early in the morning and continue with your duties, remember that is a place where people are starving of water, there is no water to bath there is no break fast, I was preferring to go to the field because I will get something small to add on my salary to keep my life going rather than depending on that token of kes 5000 from the station ," Explained Ms.Ndamwe.

 

Maureen could not check her packlist because none of her colleagues told her about the situation in Turkana East .

"My colleagues two of them were men working for known TV stations in Kenya informed me that, we were going Turkana East to a cover story on cattle restling and we will be leaving on 3AM ,imagine 3AM and they are telling me at 8PM ,I had like 5 hours to think where I'll take my child by 3AM, how I was going to travel because it was my first time ,I did not know how the area was, I don't know how the distance was, these are clashes between two communities and people normally talk about that area how risk it is ,completely I was not sure with myself but I managed ,we reached at the place where the attacks had taken place around 4pm in the evening, by that time security wise it was not allowed to move around, the administration of that place told us ,we have to sleep and get up early in the morning to reach to the place where the attacks had taken place and view the bodies so that we get the really story and facts ,I did not know if we were going to take more than a day, my colleagues did not prepare me because it was my first assignment in the field ,like you have to carry extra clothes, snacks, water never never, I had no information at all because it was assignment in the field ,"Recalled Ms.Ndamwe.

 

She could not believe in her male colleagues  while travelling for long distance to cover  a story.

"I can say about the safety and security as a female journalist covering insecurity stories is not that secure, is not that safe ,imagine you are walking with men ,you are the only lady there, walking with a group of men like 7 of them or 5 of them sometimes 4 of them, going to insecure places, you think of what could happen and from nowhere you hear those gun bullets firing from the other side ,these men could run to secure their lives and leave you there, "Recalled Ms.Ndamwe.

 

Maureen said at times security apparatus in the county could not cooperate with them .

"From the point where we started our journey in Lodwar to a point where we reached to a certain police station so that we can get an escort to the place where the attacks has taken place the previous day ,our vehicle was being monitored we didn't know who was monitoring our vehicle and somebody was telling us, don't try to get to that place because people are aware that journalists are coming to cover the story and they didn't want people to cover that story especially those people who were responsible for the attacks, upon arrival to that police station, the police officer of that station refused completely to give us the escort, he was like no going to Lorogoni no i'm not giving you the escort because I was there yesterday and how I saw the situation it was not safe completely, Claimed Ms Ndamwe.

No parents would want their own daughter, their own son, to be exposed to danger and  not given full rights...she dared not to inform her family  about the tough environment  she experienced .

"When I happened to tell my mother I'm going to insecure place to cover a story where people have been killed there my mother would say no ,don't leave your child alone in the house to go cover the story in that place ,you also understand how parents react when their children are not safe or are going to un safe place, I could not tell my family members, like I'm going to a certain place to cover a story, sometimes they could see me on a TV on a news that have been covered by a colleague while we were at that place and they would ask ,Maureen you mean you were in that place and I could say yes it's my work I have to do it if I sit back and relax how will it be done and I accepted to be a journalist, whatever place if it is risky you have to risk also if it's not you have to go there softly and get the news and come back home,"Said Ms.Ndamwe.

Despite travelling long distances to cover peace meetings and rituals she was limited to some briefings.

"If it is a peace meeting there some rituals between those communities that are being performed ,and when those rituals are being performed, you are told that women are not allowed in that place or to go to see or hear what is being said at that point, so you are like why are they discriminate people especially women from getting to know these things,,so I was not allowed to go and see or catch that part of rituals that are part of the peace meeting being performed there, so it was a little bit challenging so I could depend on my colleagues who are men who had gone there to cover the those stories to bring it so that I can copy paste nothing else I could do, "Explained Ms.Ndamwe.

She narrates how  circumstances  forced  them to take food even without  washing hands .

"You have to keep away that soft life and to work on what you want to achieve in your life, there is a time you go to a certain place , there is no food ,they will slaughter that goat, there certain things that they use to slaughter the goat instead of a knife,,after slaughtering it they will just put the whole goat without removing the skin on fire and after fews minutes that is what you will feed on and sleep,,there is a point where we use soda to wash our hands because the water we carried had been finished, the only liquid thing in our car is soda ,and because the community could not care about washing hands ,they could eat just like that ,but we were like eeeih ,this is the first in field and you have never eat without washing how will it be ,but they were proud and convincing, they said that they never die or contaminate diseases this is our life style, we normally eat without washing our hands, but we were like no ,you decide to take the soda to wash you hands like seriously,"narrates Ms Ndamwe.


According to chapter 14 of  Kenyan constitution 2010  ,safety and security is mandatory to every citizen ,she now calling upon media houses to comeup with laws that will protect journalists  working in risky areas.

"I don't understand why local radio stations don't want to invest on their journalists who put more effort, you keep on pushing them but the out come is completely at a very low percentage, may be the law if it comes through the organisation that are managing the media houses and journalists in Kenya, like Kenya Union of Journalists KUJ ,media council, Kenya Correspondent Association KCA and other organisations and involving the government, I think it will be something reasonable, something that will give morale to journalists working in risky areas, because at many time my colleagues have been attacked especially in Turkana county, they have been converged in area that they could not travel or pass ,some of them have experienced the bullets by the bandits while going to cover their story, it's very risky by the way,"Narrated Ms.Ndamwe.

 
Ginora kinyasi a community member, condemn the evil acts conducted by bandits in Turkana county ,affecting  directly women and children .

"My appeal is to human rights organisations ,peace organisation to come out loudly and condemn whatever is happening so that children can go to school and the government is the arm we depend upon, so if the government has not come out , we are praying that every civil society, peace organisation come loudly us as women we need you on ground ,"Claimed Ms Ginora.

 

She termed attacks in Kenya to bring down economy ,calling upon the government to come out strongly  and bring to book the culprits.

"The government to come out strongly to make sure all illegal guns are returned to the government and anybody holding gun illegally should be brought to book so that we can have peace and harmony in out county, "Said Ms.Ginora.
 
Salim Odeny for peace and gift development organization dealing with community programmes said the government of Kenya is not doing enough to curb insecurity in risky counties .

"And even sometimes people tend to use women as objects of war ,so that they use women to objectify the war ,they fight you ,they want to catch your women and want to molest women just to explain or even Express their power over you ,so women in most cases end up being victims of war and being objectified as objects of war where sometimes they are tortured and subjected inhuman and degrading treatment like rape and among other things that make women appear to be subdued, so it's my opinion that the government needs to put its act together to ensure that it terms the insecurity in this hard hit areas of Turkana, lamu, Baringo among other areas that are hard hit ,"Posed Mr.Odeny.

 
On her side Cindy Kobei working for crawn trust organization under African women association termed climate change to be the major cause of clashes between communities in Turkana .

"In most of these counties like Turkana and West pokot ,they are bordering Uganda and they are bordering other counties like West Pokot is actually next to Turkana and also Baringo, when such instances of conflict rises affect the children and women mostly because they are the ones who are taking care of the family they carry the burden of protection of the family and looking for food of their families and they end up migrating from their home, they leave their sources of livelihoods, they live their sources of food, they live their farms, they leave their property and their livestock so they have to migrate to a whole new country or country, they end up being scorters, they end up being homeless and it affects them alot and also children end up dropping out of school especially girls because their is no money to take her to school, they end up being pregnant and early marriages because the families are forced to sell out their girls so that they have money to buy some food,"Hesitated Ms.Cindy.

She is now calling upon the government to have peace camps in conflict areas for women and children .

"The government should ensure that they actually prioritise the women and girls in these counties because they are the ones who are most vulnerable ,they should make sure they have peace camps because in most cases the government Is the one accelerating to this conflict because they are not present on the ground so should actually send people to protect the women and children so that they can feel safe, they should have safe houses which is a project by the government and not civil society organisations because alot of the organisation have developed safe houses for women and girls in these risky areas, so they should develop safe houses for these women, and also on regards to policies ,they are alot of policies but the implementation part of it because during our visits to West Pokot ,they told us that they have peace committees but this peace committees are not effective as they are supposed to be so they should ensure that they are spearheading the peace committees, and ensuring the peace committees are actually doing their jobs ,there should also be alternative dispute resolution mechanisms provided by the government ,"Posed Ms Cindy.

 
A human right activist  George Jaramba said the government of Kenya should invest more resources  on  dialogue and community awareness on peace and also come up with strategies and adapt to do no harm principal.

"A number of factors are attributed to insecurity in the country, for restance the previous governments since independence have hardly provided a suitable environment for security apparatus to do their work effectively ,the police though recruited every year are not motivated to carry out their duties with morale ,there is also the aspect of corruption which has slowed down the fight against insecurity, the government needs therefore to look into and improve the welfare of police just as it does to the defence forces, the government should come up with live force strategy and adapt to do no harm principal in dealing with the insecurity, and also invest more resources in dialogue and community awareness, the existing community based structures like nyumba kumi and community policing need to be improved to effectively serve the purposes in which they were intended, "Added Mr.Jaramba.

 
Cecilia Ng’itit Asinyen women representative in Turkana county reiterated that the government has solve the conflict between the two patrolist communities.

 
"According to me the Government will solve this conflict and if it hestates, they should return our guns, it started with bias disarmament, government started disarmament ,Turkana community fear the government, we returned back all our guns ,and if you want to know the truth, try to investigate the recent raids, no Turkana community invaded to our neighbours but it's there neighbours every time, doesn't mean they didn't return their guns to the government ,"Lamented Ms.Asinyen.

Clergy led by bishop Peter Mwero of national council of churches in Kenya has launched peace progamme across the country  ,saying that they are engaging  with the government to strongly address the issue of insecurity across the country .

"We need a peaceful environment for us to be able to thrive in development and to be able to continue with our daily life ,so this is very important and as have been able to bring together religious leaders across faith ,I think it is parative on us to continue to remain United and preach peace and talk to our young people, talk to all the stakeholders so that all of us can put our effort together and ensure that we have peaceful environment, we also need to engage the government so that they can provide security in these areas, to our brothers and sisters in lamu, Turkana and Baringo, it is very important that we engage with the government, we engage with the security, the ministry of the internal security so that they are able to provide security in these affected areas, "Pleaded the Bishop.

 

The preamble to the constitution of UNESCO declares that ‘’ since wars begin in the minds of men ,it is in the minds of men that the defenders of peace must be constructed “

 
This article is part of Awim ,unesco ,peace and security for women journalism program.