She Made Headlines Sometime Back and Now She’s Back Again. Will the Government Come to the Rescue of Mama Sirkal?

 

Jane Anyango aka Mama Sirkal Saidia is a well-known name in Kenya and probably the world over and it is a name associated with rains and floods in the country.

The Nyando mother of 8 is remembered for this mantra cry that she first made five years ago when floods engulfed the whole of Nyando district, submerging her house and carrying away her belongings.

Mama Sirkal Saidia made this famous cry to the government to help her after saying that water had carried her kids and husband away with chicken and almost everything.

Some went ahead to produce songs using this distress call, something that Jane finds demeaning and disrespectful.

But how has Mama Sirkal Saidia prepared herself for the coming rains after a prolonged drought hit the country?

KTN recently went back to Nyando to find out how she is doing with her family and if she has put measures in place to avoid the looming floods.

Unfortunately, Mama Sirkal Saidia is still at the same place where she cried from 5 years ago. She says that she has nowhere to go and that she would have moved because she does not want the same plague to befall her.

Sitting broodingly besides her husband whom she claimed was carried away by the floods, she explains how life has moved from bad to worse despite appearing on TV almost yearly with the same plight.

She tells KTN’s Frank Otieno that even her community almost attacked them after they appeared on TV and saw journalists throng their home, thinking that they were given money and other goodies.

Are we going to see the same distress cries from Mama Sirkal again when rains finally render the earth sodden with heavy torrents? Definitely yes because Nyando is the same year in year out.

The county government should put measures to avoid this.