Isiolo hospital

It's been a while since my last post and a lot has happened... a few weeks ago now some of our clients encounted a nasty experience with shifters. For us as staff it sure wasn't an easy day ensuring everyone made it to camp safely.

So the day of the attack I was riding morning sweep - this means I'm last to ride, I have one of the three satellite phones in my backpack aswell as a first aid kit. There's another satellite phone at the lunch truck, and another in the runabout vehicle which is often ahead at camp.


I'm riding along, frustrated because I have dodgy back wheel (hubs wearing out, spokes are having issues, and I have somehow managed to bend the rim aswell) - i killed one of my slick tyres so now I am riding with a knobbly tyre on the pavement.



Up ahead of me I see James riding back towards me. Something must be wrong.

"Claire do you have the sat phone on you? You need to call Sharita" His words are rushed, he's out of breath. I calm him down and get more details. He tells me there's been a robbery up ahead, people have heard gunshots over the other side of the hill and people are scared for their own safety about continuing over the hill.

I am confused - I don't know how people hearing gunshots over the hill equate to a robbery. I pull out the sat phone and give the boss a call. She says that there is a military base up ahead and maybe it is just training.

James tells me people are waiting on the otherside of the hill, so I keep riding onwards until I catch up with the last 10 cyclists.



Then I learn that at least 3 cyclists have been held up at gunpoint. Shots were fired. No one has many details. I give the boss another call - she's already at the police station getting some police escorts in our car and military guys and heading back towards us.



One of our dinner trucks which had broken down catches up with us. Gabe jumps out and tells me someone has been shot. We don't know who. We know they have been taken to the nearest medical centre but no idea of their condition. I make another call to the boss.



We make a plan - the riders and bicycles are bundled onto the truck. The stage is over. No one will lose their EFI because of today. We make it to the next village where more riders have stopped.



6 riders have robbed - they have had mostly food and water stolen, but also some USD and cameras aswell.



The sat phone is ringing and it's Paul - he wants to know what's going on but everyone's trying to talk to me at the same time and I'm still trying to find out what's going on. I tell Paul I will call him back and he's very unimpressed.

Patrick tells me I must go and see Kendra. I give the sat phone to Gabe and tell him he must firstly call Sharita (who was requesting 5 minutely updates) and then call Paul at the lunch truck and let him know what's going on.

"Kendra has been shot?" I ask him.

"no it's just a rock they think" he tells me. "but she's been coughing up blood"



So Patrick takes me to see Kendra (Kendra has given me permission to share this story).

I am very relieved to see her sitting up and smiling and looking perfectly well. She has a small puncture wound on her chest. She tells me someone threw a rock at her straight in the chest, another person threw a spear which thankfully flew over her shoulder, a few moments later someone fired a rifle. The first thing I do is send Patrick back to Gabe to ask him to phone Sharita and tell her that no one has been shot and everyone is stable.

Kendra has some bruising, but mostly I'm concerned about the fact that she has coughed up a very small amount of blood shortly afterwards which would indicate some kind of lung trauma. She is thankfully in a stable condition. Another rider is also at the little medical clinic with a small amount of blood trickling from her ear - the wound from the butt of a rifle which she had pushed up against the side of her face.

Sharita eventually pulls up with the landcruiser and a few military guys. We organise for the remaining riders to be bundled into vehicles and taken to camp. Some of the riders that have already made it to lunch continue riding. Everyone has been accounted for.

We take Kendra to Isiolo hospital (really just wanting a chest x-ray) and check out the local Emergency department. It's a little cleaner looking than Moyale hospital at least. But still - some of the basic things we take for granted back home (like having oxygen and suctioning equipment on standby at the end of each bed) are still missing.

The person who sells the x-ray tickets is on their lunch break (which goes for two hours) so we hang out at the hospital for a while. Eventually we get the x-ray, and thankfully there's nothing serious on there (maybe a broken rib, but no major lung trauma).

At the end of the day I think everyone knew that we were lucky that no one was more seriously injured.