Fear hung in the air. In the horizon, we would see smoke rising and in the night, balls of fire threw an ominous glow to the moonless night.
We were not a target, but we feared for our lives, as some began packing whatever they could and fled. They were fleeing, but where were they going when they were running from places they had called home for decades?
The aftermath of 2007 elections left scores killed, masses moved from their homes and property worth billions destroyed. You can’t even wrap your mind around the fear that people who found themselves suddenly in the midst of people you’ve called neighbours baying for your blood.
One such man caught in the epicenter of violence, was Gidi. He says he was part of an armed group that had mounted a roadblock in Burnt Forest. Their role was to fish out non-locals and loot whatever property the people had carried when fleeing.
“It was not a good sight. You don’t want to go back there. Not anymore. We failed to ask ourselves what if we were the ones being victims?” Gidi poses.
He narrates how he rescued a woman. The group had stopped a salon car and as others rushed to see what they could get in the boot, he spotted a fine looking woman. At that point she got out of the car a dared anyone to touch her.
Gidi took her home where she stayed until the violence abated. It was then that she left to trace her family, and her home.
He talks about how violence does not solve anything. In fact, the perpetrators died mysterious deaths a few years later, while some going mad.
“Those who killed didn’t live long. I know of friends who died within a year while others inexplicably turned into zombies. Violence does not solve anything,” Gidi says.
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