By Abdullahi Jamaa
The search for justice for the infamous 1984 Wagalla massacre victims and survivors is tenuous and elusive as successive Kenyan governments failed to bring to justice the well documented perpetrators.
And as the hopes of the families in Wajir frays at the edges, Wagala widows bear the brunt of the inhuman government operation that had left their husbands dead and orphaned their children to the worst.
More than three decades after the massacre, the life of Mrs. Farhiya Abdi stills remains shattered and her mind remains bend and vexed. She is yet to cope up the aftermath of the devastating incident, the most unsetting thing in her life.
“It has been 33 years since the massacre and the scar it has created in my heart will ever remain” she says as she cries tears ahead of the 33th anniversary of the massacre. “The killing of our men in the operation had left an endless trauma”
For the occasion, this day she had tightened a white scarf around her head that frames her troubled face, her reddish eyes indicates the suffering she had braved over the years.
“For us it is unforgettable moments, the suffering is enormous both for us widows and for our children” says the spindly 52 year old Mother of four.
Like many of Wagalla widows, throughout her years, lie a sad tale and a mystery that has forced her to struggle and survive on the edge.
After the mayhem that has killed her husband, the responsibility of bringing up her four children laid squarely on her shoulders.
The hardworking mother has been the sole provider for her family since she lost her lovely husband in the Wagalla massacre.
Helpless and poor, Mrs. Abdi everyday walks to a quarry near her mundane home in Jogoo village in the outskirts of Wajir town.
Over the past three decades she survived on excavating gravel’s to eke out a living in the most deplorable conditions just to feed her orphaned children.
She has managed her family chores single-handedly, including provision of meals and medical care for her children.
“I am fending for my family like a mother and a father. It has been my own responsibility since the massacre.”
And as her bereaved family depended on her small meager earnings, the cash-strapped household could not manage to school the children.
“Schooling is not an option for us, here we struggle to get food to eat and sometimes we sleep in an empty belly” she says.
These days her grown up children helps her to some extent to put food on the table but in their ravaged home, soaring poverty still bites like a malevolent snake.
Desperate Wagalla survivors say the story is quite common in the poverty devastated Wajir County where the number of single mothers occasioned by the government operation is quite high.
“Immediately after the operation a trail of disaster was left behind, many women lost their husbands and consequently they were left to bring up their children, at around that time there was soaring drought” says Mrs. Halima Sheikh, a resident in Wajir town who also lost her father during the incident
“The struggle for survival for the massacre survivors here in Wajir is the biggest impact that families have to brave, in fact the psychological trauma for Wagalla widows and that of the orphaned children still remains a great pain for many” says Mrs. Sheikh
Many mothers struggle to make ends meet whereas many more have been turned to toil as domestic servants in a bid to bridge the gap left by their lost husbands.
“Since we lost our husbands we have been living in a hard-scrabbling life where getting basic necessities like food is a hard nut to crack” says another widow Mrs. Habiba Hussein
In the orgy incident an estimated 5,000 men of Degodia clan have lost their lives and hundreds of others are still missing until today.
The Government says only 386 people were killed in the inhuman operation but residents disputed the number of their missing relatives since that dark February. They demand compensation and justice against the perpetrators.
“For the victims and survivors of the 1984 massacre, this has been an excruciating process of being promised justice and watching the government renege on its promises again and again,” said Mrs. Shamsa Ahmed a widow
“All those responsible for the massacre must be brought to justice – whether they are political leaders, police or government officials.”
In his book, ‘Blood on the Runway’ writer and Wajir’s Gubernatorial aspirant Salah Abdi Sheikh portrays the suffering of wagalla widows and orphans as enormous and beyond belief.
“As they nursed their wounds and tried to take care of the large number of orphans left behind, they were seething with anger and frustrations” he writes “It is really hard to forget Wagalla massacre where every football team was made orphans”
For many like Mrs. Abdi however, the trouble they have endured for years is devastating and mind-boggling and despite their endless search for justice, one thing is common ‘despair’ “Even if we are compensated today, it will not help us mend and heal the scars in our broken hearts” she finally says.
