Kenyans waiting patiently to voteYvette and I had arrived in Kenya on 26th the day before the presidential and parliamentary elections for a 3 week safari and beach holiday. We had watched on the 27th Kenyans queing around the clock to vote, listening to their reasons for voting for Kibaki or Raila. Then slowly watched the votes coming in, as we headed up to Samburu for the start of the safari Raila was clearly wining and as we left Samburu for Lake Baringo Kibaki’s loyal Kikuyu tribe had resigned themselves to him now being an ex-president.
At Lake Baringo things suddenly changed, Kibaki was suddenly announced President and sworn in even quicker, our Kikuyu guide went out to celebrate while the westerners in the camp discussed the audacity of the coup that Kibaki had pulled off. That night while we slept rioting started in the town some 500m from us and any Kikuyu found were being beaten.
Lake Baringo is famous for its birdlife, so we started the day with a boat tour then headed on to Lake Bogaria to see the flamingos and Geysers. We now left these lakes in the upper Rift Valley to head south to Nakuru for the next leg of the safari. Although before we hit the road a quick repair to minibus’s steering column had to be made, as the steering had failed.
Sun rise over Lake Baringo
The journey to Nakuru should only be a quick 2 hour drive down good roads and we were making good time. In the distance a large group of people stood on either side of the road. As we drove past things felt tense. Within another few miles we came across a second large group, this time partly across the road. A police Landrover with armed officers was on hand and although the atmosphere felt even tenser we drove through safely. Still further down the road we found another large group of men. This time they had completely closed off the road and there seemed to be no way to pass. A white truck, which had got through pulled up beside us and a group of 8 locals armed with bows, arrows and clubs got out of the back. Our driver spoke with their driver, I’m guessing about whether we could get through the road block ahead. Suddenly our driver accelerated the minibus away and the armed men jumped back. He threw our vehicle off the road to our left and u turned it to get back on the road. As I looked around I saw the men with their bows pulled back about to shoot. I pushed Yvette’s head down into the foot well and the arrows clattered into the outside of our vehicle.
Soon we were back on the road again and heading back towards the road blocks we had been through earlier, with the white truck with the armed gang chasing us. Fortunately the police Landover had progressed through the road blocks towards us and we pulled them over just up the road to report what had happened to us and left the armed police to deal with the white truck and its occupants. But, we still had 2 road blocks to get through. At the first road block they had been busy since we had passed through and as we drew closer saw large rocks being placed on the road. As we got closer any gaps were being hurriedly closed off. By the time we were a few hundred yards away and the entire road had been closed and the mob surrounding it was looking very hostile. At the last minute our driver saw a gap off road to the right and swerved the vehicle off, the mob ran at the vehicle and I looked around to see they carried stones. Once again Yvette and I ducked down into the foot well as stones smashed into the side of the minibus. This time they were better shots and one put a nice double brick sized rock through Yvette’s window covering us both in shards of glass. It had been another close escape. At the final road block which we had passed with ease earlier in the day, the mob still hadn’t quite sorted their act out and had only partially closed off the road; we easily found a route around and sped back to the campsite with earnest glances over our shoulders to check we weren’t being followed.
