Project

Kenya: Uneasy Neighbors

Kenya's Kakuma Refugee Camp was for years among the world's most famous, home to the "Lost Boys" of southern Sudan and as many as 90,000 refugees and displaced persons. Today those still here are fighting for their lives, caught between "donor fatigue" and a struggle over limited resources with their Turkana neighbors that is increasingly violent. Aid agencies have cut food rations, in response to the global recession, while persistent drought has strained resources for all the inhabitants of this semi-arid region.

Ernest Waititu reports on the consequences: conflicts over water, food and jobs as Turkana people look increasingly to the camp for the resources they need to survive. With the region awash in illegally traded guns the government of Kenya has imposed a dawn-to-dusk curfew on the camp and surrounding area. But even as the resources in the camp dwindle and conflict grows, Kakuma is still home to more than 42,000 refugees. The numbers are rising following an influx of refugees from war-torn Somalia, who are now finding their way to Kakuma from the overflowing Dadaab Refugee Camp.

October 24, 2009 | World Vision Report

Ambulance Ride

Ernest Waititu

In Africa's refugee camps, having access to basic health care isn't easy. Resources are limited, safety is uncertain, and aid agencies have to work harder to save lives. Ernest Waititu spent an evening riding along in the only ambulance serving Kenya's sprawling Kakuma Refugee Camp. The camp is home to more than 40,000 refugees from more than 10 countries in Eastern Africa.

July 06, 2009 | Pulitzer Center

Kakuma, Kenya: Digging for Water

Ernest Waititu, for the Pulitzer Center, Kakuma, Kenya

At the crack of dawn when women and children in other parts of the world wake up to take warm showers and sit down to breakfast, women and children of Kakuma in Turkana Region of Kenya wake up to a different exercise: to walk for miles in the hunt for water. Upon their arrival at the "water source" the real work begins, as they dig the ground for water in the essentially dry gulch that goes by the name of Tarach River.

June 12, 2009 | Pulitzer Center

Digging for Water in Kakuma

Ernest Waititu, for the Pulitzer Center, Kakuma, Kenya

At the crack of dawn when women and children in other parts of the world wake up to take warm showers and sit down to breakfast, women and children of Kakuma in Turkana Region of Kenya wake up to a different exercise: to walk for miles in the hunt for water.

June 10, 2009 | Pulitzer Center

Kakuma, Kenya: Life can be cheap

Ernest Waititu, for the Pulitzer Center, Kakuma, Kenya

When the flight attendant announces that we should prepare for landing, the plane plummets fast towards the hills at a speed that makes me think about the will which has remained on my to-do list for a while now. The plane steadies, only for a while, for when it hits Loki's runway it is with a thud. Never before had I felt a stronger urge to perform that old ritual of bursting into applause when a plane touched down.