Man on 900km peace mission walk reaches Mombasa

By Linah Benyawa

A man who had been walking for 900km to preach peace and reconciliation and to raise funds to offset a bank loan he borrowed before the poll violence in 2007 has reached Mombasa.

Charles William Kivondo, 60, has been on a walk from Kisumu to Mombassa to solicit support from Kenyans.

Kivondo said he borrowed Sh200,000 from the Agricultural Finance Corporation, Kericho branch, which he used to develop his sugarcane and tea plantations in Muhoroni, Nyanza and some in Kericho, Rift Valley.

Charles Kivondo, an internally displaced person from Muhoroni in Nyando county. He has walked a distance of 900 km from Nyando to Mombasa to offset a bank loan he took before the post-election violence in 2007. Photo: Linah Benyawa/ Standard

"I took the loan in 2007 before the elections but when the violence erupted I lost everything and because I had not repaid it, the bank is on my neck," he said.

When he visited The Standard offices in Mombasa, Kivondo could not help but shed tears as he narrated the painful ordeal he went through when his property worth millions of shillings was razed down during the post-election violence.

On Wednesday, accompanied by his elder son, Kivondo demanded for a share of the money meant for resettlement of the Internal Displaced Persons (IDPS) saying he had not received any from the government.

"My children, some who had to join the university and some in primary and secondary school have been left hopeless as their future was ruined by the violence and the government has done nothing to help me," he added.

He also claimed that there were fake IDPS who were fleecing funds meant for resettling the genuine ones.

"Those people living in the camps are fake IDPS getting money at the expense of the genuine ones and we are left to suffer, they are using the funds to enrich themselves," he claimed.

He also asked the government to conduct operation rudi nyumbani Phase II to take all the IDPS back to their homes.

Before the 2007 elections, Kivondo was a manager in the former Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko’s Koru farm. This is where he was living with his family of eight.

He had more than ten acres of sugarcane and tea plantations in Koru and in Kunyak Division in Kericho County, Rift Valley Province.

"But all these were set ablaze because I was not from the right community. I was forced to go backhome in Makueni District. Everything in my home, including shoes, was looted," he recalls.

Kivindo had secured the loan in January 2007, giving a title deed of one of his parcels of land.

But before he could service the whole loan, hell broke loose.

"I was left with nothing, but I thank God, they didn’t kill me. I can still walk and solicit funds to pay back the loan," he bitterly says.

After the violence, he returned to Koru in the Operation Rudi Nyumbani programme.

There was nothing at home for him to put his hands on. His children had dropped out of school for lack of school fees.

A demand letter from the AFC Kericho Branch demanded him to pay the outstanding loan balance of (Sh182, 300) within 14 days from February 9.

"I went and talked to them about the walk, and they are aware. So they have relaxed," he said.

Kivondo has the necessary documents to justify his mission, including a stamped letter from the Kisumu East DC's office as his first check point and a permit granted by Joseph Wanyonyi for the Muhoroni DC, copied to OCPDs in Kisumu, Nyando, Nairobi and Mombasa.