Kenya (Mount Elgon) – SLDF

Reverend Steven Mairori leaned his head through the open window over a vacant driver’s seat and said, “Wait here and I will let you know when you can come out.”
Following Mairori into the Mount Elgon District Commissioner’s Office was Africa Inland Church’s (AIC) bishop leading 4000 homes of God and Kenya’s retired military general under former President Moi. Just an hour earlier, we prayed over glasses of water and Sprite while munching on butter cookies together at the AIC’s Mt. Elgon home office. Neither Tyler nor I expected such a meeting, let alone an opportunity to film in the village of Kapsocony that suffered tremendously two years ago when the Sabaot Land Defense Force (SLDF) attacked and chased off people from their land. With the exception of a French medical team, we were the first film crew invited to visit this area of Mt. Elgon and report on the events that transpired over the last two years.
“The French medical team filmed activities in Kopsiro shortly after the elimination of the SLDF, but were given 24 hours to evacuate the area. One doctor was arrested.”
“Why was he arrested?” I asked the retired general.
He chuckled, “For practicing medicine.”
“For practicing medicine?”
“For practicing medicine,” he finished the conversation.
The question I wanted to ask was, “Why was the French team instructed to leave,” but I surmised an answer.
The French medical team, there to lend assistance to the violence affected Sabaot members delved too deeply into the torture inflicted by military forces ordered to hunt down and exterminate members of the SLDF and were evicted from the area. The creation of the SLDF followed former President Moi’s directive opening land t all Kenyan’s with a price tag. Land bought by those financially able left those struggling to make ends meet homeless, thus forcing the need for Internally Displaced Person camps (IDPs). Those buying the land include politicians, as well as rich tribal members. In the case of the Sabaot and Mt. Elgon, rich Sabaot bought out the land of their brother tribesmen forcing many to seek refuge. Some though took action and created a guerilla militia force out to punish the new landowners and reclaim the land. Punishment included humiliation, mutilation and death. In response, the Kenyan government deployed its national military force to combat the situation. The military went door to door and without due process executed the right of extrajudicial enforcement, which included similar tactics employed by members of the SLDF. The Mt. Elgon Sabaot population now had two forces to fear, their brothers and the government. Some sided with the SLDF in order to place food on their family’s plates, while others ratted out members to the military, sometimes erroneously with sad outcomes.
“I was hearing some youths that were saying that after their parents running away, that they have no food to eat, so they thought that it was good to join the militia so that they can steal the cattle and eat in the bush. Others were forced to join the militia because if you are a youth and you do not join the SLDF, it is better that you go outside Mount Elgon,” Crispin, a Pasteur in Mt. Elgon church community explained to us.
“My nephew was killed and damned into a pit latrine,” a man told us outside a primary school converted into an IDP home. “We only found him after twenty-one days in the pit latrine, removed him and buried him. Those people [SLDF] called me and used a private number and they told me the direction where they damned my nephew.”
Fast-forward two years to present day and peace—for now—is on Mount Elgon.
“I’ve never felt more insecure being a mzungu in Kenya than now,” Tyler expressed emphatically.
“Here at Mount Elgon?” Michelle asked.
“Yeah.”
I rested my head on the rear passenger window and in bold letters on the District Commissioner’s office wall read:

WE AS SERVANTS OF THE KENYA PEOPLE PLEDGE OUR COMMITMENT TO THE PUBLIC THORUGH OUR MOTTO: INTEGRITY AND JUSTICE.

The reverend, bishop and retired general exited the building with an entourage of district officials and church members. Mairori opened the driver-side door and sat behind the wheel, “Okay, we’re going.”
“To the rally?”
“Yes.”
A couple hundred or so locals attended the government/church/military presentation encouraging the public to accept the military’s presence and the construction of a permanent base. Although the leaders assured justice would come to those who committed the horrendous atrocities, all parties urged the community to forgive their neighbor as Jesus would.
Crispin a couple days later elaborated, “So people joined for different reasons and as the church, that is what we are telling people about who joined the militia group unwilling, forced, others were desperate, they had no where to go so they saw the option that they must join those people so they can continue surviving.”
Even though the military deniably condemned innocent lives, the public did express support for a military presence to protect the population.

Two days after the rally, we received word the military had left Mt. Elgon.