How we came to live here

I was born here. Our parents moved to this village in the 1970s after a prolonged drought. Our neighbours then the Pokot raided our village and stole the animals that had survived the drought living us with nothing to survive on. This is when they had to move to Kitale.
They were 30 families when they moved from Lodwar to Kitale and were settled in Machinjoni (near the slaughter house). This was a dumping ground for the town. They settled here because it was near the slaughter house where at times they would get scraps of meat off skins and hides or even at times get calves to raise and eat.
As our population increased, we remained poor and only relying on the hand-outs we were getting from the slaughter house. Life was difficult. Our parents could not educate us. We ended up in Kitale town as vulnerable street boys and girls.
The challenges we were facing
Our houses were made of waste plastic bags. Women continued to fend for their families through prostitution. The youth unable to make ends meet were desperate. Some ended up in criminal activities. We have lived like this here since the ‘70s.
In 1984, a cholera outbreak caused many to die. Many families then were left un-headed. Children were orphaned. Some of the families were swept under the scourge while others were left with single little children who ended up in town to pick from the dumps and garbage heaps. Even those who died were buried near the settlement. And the situation was worsened by the fact that the area was a dumping ground for all sorts of things.
One day our neighbour collected a well wrapped package in the dump. Thinking that it was a valuable item she sneaked it to her house only to find that it was an aborted baby that had been dumped in the bin. She was very shocked. We were wondering whether we were Kenyan’s or are we refugees from another country.
The smell in the village owing to poor sanitation practices was so bad that every time you wished that you went out of the village and in to town other than be in the village. (She comics – if you do not get fresh air you will always be thin).
We pleaded with the council mayor then to stop the council trucks from dumping waste at the site as it had become an unhealthy ground. Later the Director of Social Services fronted the cause and the dumping was stopped. The population of remaining members of Kipsongo continued to increase.