Abdi Mahad, a friend Of mine in the States has penned a moving poem about the Somali situation in Kenya where Somalis are being raided by the police in the pretext of hunting Alshabaab. A gross human rights violation.

Fear of Detention
Written by Abdimahad
In the middle of night
When all sound dies
You hear boots clopping in the hallway
As clippety-clop coming close to you
You crouch and cower in the corner
Soldiers kicking in doors
chaos rips the neighborhood asunder
All hell breaks loose
Tears of fear oozing
In the middle of night
When all sound dies
You hear boots clopping in the hallway
As clippety-clop coming close to you
Your neighbor is whisked away in barefoot,
nothing you can do but listen.
Listen, wait, and wonder
when your time will come.
In the middle of night
When all sound dies
You hear boots clopping in the hallway
As clippety-clop coming close to you
When that time comes
Loved ones taken away,
you never know if you'll see them again.
both young and old
being dragged to vans,
to the jails of no return.
Girls and senile grand mothers
being groped, raped
and dragged to alleys,
to the dungeons of no return.
In the middle of night
When all sound dies
You hear boots clopping in the hallway
As clippety-clop coming close to you
You can hear the screams of babies
echoing through the apartment building.
Wondering when these corrupt
and callous soldiers
will take you away from this place.
Toddlers sobbing as they hear the
crackle of the handcuffs.
"Daddy is gone"
In the middle of night
When all sound dies
You hear boots clopping in the hallway
As clippety-clop coming close to you
To justify cruelty and brutality
you are just a Somali.
To justify cruelty and brutality
you are just a Muslim
To justify cruelty and brutality
you have no one to fight for you.