By KANERE staff writer, January 2019
A motorbike driver was killed on January 14th 2019, along the paths that connect Kalobeyei Settlement and Kakuma four area. The deceased was identified as Adelin Nkeshimana, a Burundian national and a refugee registered under UNHCR protection. He had been living in Kakuma refugee camp – in Kakuma 3, Zone 1, Block 6 since 2016 when he arrived in Kakuma after escaping violence in his home country. Kazinhmaryah was 36 years old and the father of three children. According to his neighbors, the deceased previously worked as a driver for others who owned bodabodas (motorbikes) in the camp; he was dealing in the trade off food and non-food items between Kalobeyei and Kakuma. “He was buying food staffs from Kalobeyei during the distribution of the BambaChakula cash programme, after which he would trade these off in Kakuma” a close friend told KANERE.
Brazan, brother of the deceased, told KANERE, “Adelin left his home with his TVS 155 CC model motorbike – which he had just bought on week earlier – on January 14th. As usual, he was looking for business; he didn’t return for lunch or dinner. We started worrying when the day become late. We called his phone number, but it was not going through. We called to his friends who work with him, but no one had seen him. It eventually reached four days that we hadn’t heard from him.” Holding back tears, he continued, “We went searching, and we reported the incident to the Kenyan Police. We even checked him in hospital thinking he might have been in an accident. But we found him nowhere.”
According to Andersen, who worked with Adelin, “On the fourth day, which was Thursday, the 17th of January, the bodaboda drivers from his community went on search operations all over the Kakuma and Kalobeyei. They searched the main roads, lanes and other shortcuts looking for him. The members tried every possible road that would be used by bodaboda drivers.”
The body was found under the sand, suggesting he was killed and buried by his assailants. His wife Evanicharma said, “He was a lovely husband, a hard working, dedicated man, someone who could hold down two or three jobs at the same time. Someone who always looks forward, who seeks to advance and improve his family’s life. It hurt me to find out what happened. I have faith that the perpetrators will be found.”
“When we found him, his eyes and his brain were almost destroyed. We have no idea where his new bike is,” explained one close relatives.
His family and friends maintain that deceased did not have any enemies in the camp. Anderson reflected, “It is very hard to say whether he was killed by” x “or by “Y “because no one was captured.”
The incident – which is added to a growing list of killings – has left the community in trauma. In additions to this, a Congolese bodaboda driver was killed in April along with a South Sudanese woman. The body of the Congolese driver was discovered under the highway bridge near Kalobeyei Village 3 the next morning. Both murders happened in the evening time between 6:00 PM and 7:00 PM, near the same place, which is between Kalobeyei Village 3, Compound 4, Neighborhood 18 and Kakuma 4, Block 8.
The Village 3 residents blame the drivers calling that “the drivers risked their life just to save few fuel and time by using the road which is not safe and unofficial, this thing can put boda drivers and the passengers in danger.”
Police in Kakuma and Kalobeyei have launched an investigation but have not apprehended anyone in connection to the murder.
KANERE reporter confirmed the matter with an unnamed officer who is handling the investigations, but the officer could not issue a public statement about the ongoing investigations.