Kenya: Displaced compensation still unpaid

  1. Posted on Wednesday 21 January 2009 - 19:52
    Wamaru
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    Irene Wamaru, VoicesofAfrica mobile reporter in Nakuru, Kenya
    When violence first broke out in December 2007 following disputed presidential polls in Kenya, more than 350,000 people were left homeless as they fled blood letting gangs. However, many more fled their homes for safe abode in the homes of relatives, friends and well-wishers.
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    The group came to be known as Integrated IDPs, a phrase coined from the popular word, internally displaced people which was given to the internal refugees. Now, almost a year after the signing of a peace accord between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, most of the refugees who had sought refuge in camps have been resettled after the government paid them a meagre sum of Ksh. 10,000 (about $130).

    However, the second group that had put up with relatives is yet to receive compensation. They claim that the government had promised them a total sum of Ksh. 35,000 ($450). A group of about 600 integrated refugees have now left their homes and have been camping at the Nakuru district commissioner's office to press the government to fast track their compensation.

    The group is living in squalid conditions as they depend on well wishers for food and clothing. There are no sanitary facilities at their temporary camp and they have set up polythene bags to protect them from effects of the weather. Despite constant pressure from the government for them to vacate the premises, the group has vowed not to leave until they have been fully compensated.

Reactions

  1. Posted on Wednesday 28 January 2009 09:35
    mwrntr
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    Simon Mwaura
    23 berichten
    Lid sinds December 2008

    The plight of the refugees in the Nakuru and other parts of Kenya deserves more attention.
    These people,most of them being women and children are really suffering in the makeshift camps and this is not really good considering that the only mistake they made,as Kofi Annan put it, was to vote.
    What is more painful is the contempt with which the Kenyan parliamentarians are treating this matter. It is now turning out that those leaders responsible for the post election violence,especially the cabinet ministers,shall continue serving in their positions even when undergoing the trial for their offenses. This is terrible news for the people of Kenya and it shows how our politicians are insensitive to the plight of the suffering Kenyans.
    All Kenyans and the world at large must strongly demand from the Kenyan political class for a quick action to restore the dignity of the people suffering in the refugee camps.The current state of affairs is simply not acceptable.
    Mwaura