What we should be telling the children whose fathers died defending the country

Kenya Defense Forces on duty at the border between Kenya and Somalia. (courtesy)

By: Yasmin Mohamed

They laugh,they live happily in our midsts.But deep in their hearts they nurse ugly injuries.

Injuries caused by mistakes not theirs. Injuries from circles around them. These are the children of soldiers.

In the high walls of barracks they grow up, they grow in the most secure places yet again insecure.

They see bullets shot everyday, but don’t know the effects. Their fathers stand to protect others. They live in dry sandy lands or high icy mountains. They eat dry packed, tasteless foods. Some fly in the air in swift planes…all to protect a land. Till the time comes; when they die by the enemy’s bullet, fighting men with ugly missions and hunger of lives. That’s when the life of a Northern child rolls around.

They move from the barracks and find their way back to where they came from. In such places, it’s home yet far away from home. They yearn for the security all over them, yet again feel a little free. But in all that, its the dirty words that eats them slowly.

Northern Kenya is where most of the terrorists are supposed to have a majority number because of the close boundary. The residents of the “greener Kenya” point fingers at them for being cushites and closer to the terrorists when they sadly lost parents in the fight with the terrorists themselves. And in the warmth of home, they’re children of enemies, enemies who killed “martyrs.” This remains an injury to them—no comfort at home neither in the far land.

As we mark a year after El Added attack where scores of soldiers were killed in ambush—some of their bodies never recovered—we ought to remember the children they left behind.

To give them a strong word to push them and live comfortably among us. To show them that not everyone is as ugly as the killers of their fathers. To build hope that their fathers were men of valour who stood to protect the lives of others for the prosperity of the nation. And they are the actual martyrs.