Two Kenyans recount 19 months of horror in the hands of Al Shabaab

Wainaina and Yesse spent 19 months in Somalia, in the hands of Al-Shabaab.

They say that the experience wasn't a cakewalk.

The two spoke to Citizen Reporter Brenda Wanga about their ordeal.

"The attack started at around 4 pm, and went on until around 10pm when they subdued the station. It was a fierce gunfight. Around 10 police officers and a number of locals lost their lives in the fight," remembers Mule.

Mule and his colleague hid under a table, crawling on their stomachs in an attempt to dodge a hail of bullets coming from every direction.

“I think the attackers numbered more than a hundred. I remember seeing one of the attackers peeping through the windows. Our eyes met. Then he retreated. He didn't shoot at us," says Wainaina, who hails from Murang’a.

"There were three of us hiding in the house. So, we walked out of the room with our hands raised after the militia ordered us to come out."

They were then ordered to lie down, their heads touching the ground.

"I knew it was our time to die, but then one of their leaders saw my staff budge, and stopped what may have as well been our execution,” he says.

Wainaina was only a week old at the Wajir station, working as a District Registrar, when the attack happened.

The long and torturous journey to Somalia began that same night. It would take several days, under very difficult conditions, to arrive in Mogadishu.

“Once in Somalia, we were told in no uncertain terms that we would never return back home to Kenya unless our government met certain conditions,” says Yesse, describing the whole incident as most traumatising.

Yesse, then a very young man, had been helping with the issuance of National Identity cards to locals in Wajir when the attack happened.

In his mind, Yesse had hoped to reunite with his family soon after they were abducted, but he was wrong.

“They tied our hands and bundled us into the back of a pick-up truck, and took us away. I remember along the way they stopped to bury some four corpses they had carried in the pick-up,” says Yesse, adding that he had to learn to survive quickly if he was to live.

Slowly, the days turned into weeks, then into months. Soon, their hopes began to fade.

The two would later learn about silent negotiations that were taking place between certain clan elders, their captors and the government of Kenya.

After 19 months in detention, the two were released following government intervention.

“The only way to survive was to 'kill' the reality of life as I had known it. I had to kill everything I knew in life. There was no point thinking about our families or home. I ‘killed’ everything I knew. I had to embrace my knew reality,” says Yesse.

As for Wainaina, life has never been the same ever since he returned home.

“I wish the government could come through for us; support us where possible and wipe our tears because we suffered because of the government,” says Wainaina.

The government reportedly awarded Yesse and Wainaina a medal following the ordeal, but the two are yet to lay their hands on the medals.