Divine protection! Lady, run back into the bushes, well come back for you... we will pray for you we all shouted unanimously to the pregnant woman carrying a 2 year old on her back and a bag so she could not catch up with the truck! There was a sudden commotion, everyone seemed to be running everywhere... it was only 7am and I was so tired and sleepy I could barely open my eyes. I figured someone must have fainted or something but it didnt make sense why all 3 trucks in the convoy had stopped. Then I found myself running too... We had left Nairobis Eastleigh estate the previous afternoon headed for Moyale in a truck and 17 hours later we were barely half way. I was in the VIP section; the 1st class... the cabin which 5 of us shared, plus the driver. Economy class was in the back with the goods and stuff. We were not far from Isiolo Town when all hell broke lose... SHIFTAS ATTACKED!! Looking back, I cant figure out how the 2 guys in the sleeping area of the cabin had gotten past me as I slept coz by the time I jumped out of the truck, they were long gone! So here we were, running helter skelter like headless chicken in the bushes... well, for me it was helter skelter coz I had no clue where I was running to! All I knew was I had to RUN! What is that safety advice about how to react when you hear a gunshot? Lie down and cover your head? Ok, but what do you when you hear GUNSHOTS??!! Like, MAAAANY! All I could hear were shots then bullets whizzing by and hitting the dirt and small trees nearby... I WAS IN THE MATRIX TEREN TEREN... yeah right! I was so scared I couldnt even pee myself! We were running towards Isiolo... I am not sure how far we planned to run coz Isiolo was some 50-60 km away... When a truck appeared heading to Moyale. I guess the drivers on that road knew shifta escapees coz he stopped and begun to turn the truck the moment he saw this bunch of men running like mad people. The truck was full of goods and fully covered with tarpaulin so one just clung to any part that was... umm... clingable and was dragged until he managed to climb to the top. As we were climbing to the top of the moving truck, bullets still whizzing past us, a woman ran out of the bushes. She was around 5-6 months pregnant, carrying another child on her back plus a bag... screaming for us to wait! The moment the truck slowed down, the volley of gunshots increased and we realized the shiftas were close behind. We had only 2 options; slow down, wait for her, help her get on and risk getting caught or.... or leave her and pray that God protects her.... We watched in terrified silence as she ran back into the bushes and noone spoke for around 10 minutes. I guess each of us was saying a prayer for her. Then we begun to realize that huge thorns had pierced right through our shoes and boots and we never felt a thing. But the funniest was our driver... he had NO SHOES ON! He was asleep in the cabin when the attack happened (the co driver was behind the wheel then) and had just jumped out of the truck. There was only one thorn in his heel but his socks were all shredded. Some 30 km later we met a truck that was ferrying illegal immigrants back to Ethiopia. It was full of armed Admin Police so we stopped them, requested their help and jumped onto their truck. We asked them to be on the look out for the lady... on the way back, lol and behold, she suddenly jumped onto the road! The shouts of joy was deafening! Even the refugees were rejoicing! I can still see the womans face as we left her... then the joy when we picked her. God is good! Safety is not the absence of danger, but the presence of God in danger!
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 05:00:04 +0000
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