The recent public announcement by the Rift Valley PC, Mr. Hassan Noor to those in IDP centers that the government would not compensate those affected by the post-election skirmishes has been met with sharp reactions and also surprised many households including the general public. Many in various IDP camps claim to have lost lives of loved ones and other varied property including land, permanent houses, shops and businesses, vehicles, vital documents like Title Deeds and money, among other household items.
Many who work with NGO’s intimated that the government has ben forced to take such measures after the nation was given bad publicity of the fate of ordinary Kenyans living in their own country but as refugees. As a gesture to turn around the tables, the provincial Administration has been made to literally force those affected by the skirmishes at the IDP centres to leave the camps without being fully compensated.
One of the hard hit and affected centres is the Turbo IDP camp located about thirty kilometers from Eldoret town and that which accommodates those who were displaced from their homes secondary to last year’s post-election violence that was ethically and politically motivated.
Apart from the largest IDP center in Eldoret that accommodates about 12,000 persons, is the five-acre Turbo IDP camp that is home to about six thousand persons including children. Those affected are pre-election residents of Othaya center of Turbo Division majority being members of the Gikuyu community.
Investigations confirm that life at the camp seems unbearable to those who were affected by the skirmishes. The most touchy issue involves the resettlement and compensation of persons displaced from their homes and who are at the camps awaiting government’s assistance and compensation. The affected persons were promised that they would be fully compensated but only when they agree to go back to their homes. Only recently the area DC had met with residents at the camp and assured them that the government was still willing to fully compensate them.
On the other hand, compensation forms were issued and information on the same provided to the Provincial Administration through their area chiefs and chairmen as household representatives though many forms were manipulated to suit certain persons. Many believed that the compensation agenda was only but a gimmick to entice them to leave the IDP centers. This only confirms the recent claims by the government through the Rift Valley PC, Mr. Hassan Noor who reversed the expected compensation issue.
While visiting the camp our reporter managed to talk to some about their daily predicaments and it was unfortunate that all was not well at the camp that is divided into blocks A to F. Each block had a capacity of 300 to 400 adults making the total population of the occupants to stand at around 6,000 including children.
Food, clean water, sanitation and health facilities have been limited. The camp has five water tanks with a capacity to hold 2,000 litres of water each and a larger one holding 10,000 litres of water and which was donated by Oxfam Company limited to supplement water supply. On matters that touched on health, the Red Cross had earlier put up a mobile dispensary at the camp and serious cases were either referred to the Turbo’s Rural Training Center and Hospital and the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret town.
On the issue of food, a single household was only given 2Kg of maize or maize floor to last two weeks while 300ml of cooking oil was to last the same period. Others include supply of split, dry yellow peas given in accordance to the size of family. A single household would be given 2Kgs of the peas.
The availance of food items would take three days even with the coordination of the Red Cross. Other non-food items include a bar of soap per household and few sanitary towels.
The camp that had about 350 pupils attending school was hardest hit on matters education. About 300 of them were primary school going while 50 had been attending Forestal Secondary school. Majority of the youth living in the camp had opted not to attend school due to the adverse effects of the post-electoral skirmishes. Now that many school leavers are idle, some have turned to taking bhang, cigarettes, busaa and chang’aa that are being cheaply distributed and purchased at Kambi Mawe apart from prostitution that is prevalent around Turbo shopping centre. Clients who seek prostitution services include recruits at the NYS camp, truck drivers, some security personnel and businessmen.
Residents at the camp are still skeptical about the alleged assurance on security matters. They fear for their lives and strongly intimate that security has not yet been provided to enable them return to their homes to cultivate their farms. Some were of the opinion that government should readily allocate them a separate location that was safer and that they wished to immigrate together as a group and not as individuals.
Persons affected and who are at the camp were from Kapsagoi, Nge’nyilei, Kabtebee, Sugoi, Mbagara, Mautuma and Lumakanda locations. Some still urge the government to fully compensate them or they would take the matter to the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission and the courts of law. Their lives, according to many, would be adversely affected if no measures were taken to ensure they live in houses than the stigmatizing and inhuman tents that seem foreign to their daily lives.
Mundia Mundia Jnr
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Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 03:19:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: mundia mundia
Subject: Person’s in IPD Camps Being Mistreated by Government.