A Story from Wajir

The women of Wajir did not set out to stop a war. They just wanted to make sure they could get food for their families. The initial idea was simple enough: Make sure that the market is safe for anyone to buy and sell.

Wajir town is located in the Northeast part of Kenya, near the Somali border. The District is made up mostly of Somali clans. Like other parts of the Horn of Africa, the people of Wajir have suffered the impact of numerous internal wars in neighboring Somalia and Ethiopia. With the collapse of the Somali government in 1989, increased fighting inside the country created countless refugees that spilled over the border into Kenya. Wajir soon found itself caught up in interclan fighting, with a flow of weapons, fighting groups, and refugees that made life increasingly difficult. By 1992 the Kenyan government declared Wajir in a state of emergency…