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Kenya: Compensation, Fear of Attacks Keeping IDPs in Rift Valley Camps
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
1 May 2008
Posted to the web 1 May 2008
Eldoret
Along the Nakuru-Eldoret road, the charred remains of homes and businesses scar the picturesque landscape of Kenya's Rift Valley province and serve as a reminder of two months of violence that rocked the nation early this year.
The calm that is typical of most rural settings belies the suffering experienced by thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) since fleeing their homes in January and February.
"We are starting the third month of living in tents yet I don't see myself leaving soon because I am afraid nothing has changed out there," Rosemary Kuria, an IDP at a camp in Eldoret, told IRIN.
Fear of attacks should they return home and the hope of receiving compensation from the government seem to be two key issues for most IDPs, and contribute to their seeming reluctance to return home even after the formation of a coalition government a month ago, which was to have marked the end of their displacement.
Several IDPs told IRIN that although a political solution had been found, peace and reconciliation had yet to take root, especially in the Rift Valley which, with neighbouring Nyanza province, bore the brunt of the violence. Analysts and political observers say there is more to the violence experienced in the Rift Valley, with many citing irregular land allocation and distribution as well as other "social injustices" that date back to independence in 1963.
At least 350,000 were displaced at the height of the violence, which also claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people. Up to 150,000 of those displaced remain in camps in the Rift Valley. Western and Nyanza provinces have fewer than 5,000 IDPs in camps but, according to the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), tens of thousands of families referred to as "relocatees", who returned to so-called "ancestral lands" from Central Province and Nairobi.
Political solutions
While thousands of IDPs continue to live in difficult conditions in camps, a team of negotiators from two political parties forming the coalition government - the Party of National Unity and the Orange Democratic Movement - is discussing long-term issues brought to the fore by the post-election crisis.
The negotiators, the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Committee, have agreed on the formation and composition of a commission of inquiry, a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, and a National Ethnic and Race Relations Commission.
On 29 April, the team reviewed a draft statement of principles on long-term issues and solutions. This covered legal and institutional reform; poverty, inequity and regional imbalances; unemployment, particularly among the youth; national cohesion and unity; land reform; and transparency, accountability and impunity.
Oliver Ayieko, an operations data assistant of the KRCS at a camp in Burnt Forest, 40km northwest of Eldoret town, said the number of IDPs in several camps in the area kept fluctuating as some tried to return home and others sought refuge with friends and relatives.
"Those who had been living with relatives have also come into the camps as the food reserves of those they were staying with started dwindling," Ayieko said.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Burnt Forest area had some 7,799 IDPs at 14 April, with the whole North Rift region hosting 48,670 IDPs, 14,000 of whom are in the Eldoret showground.
"Resettlement of IDPs is the main issue right now," Mercy Manyala, a humanitarian affairs officer for OCHA, based in Eldoret, told IRIN. "Peace meetings are being held across the region, led by the district administration officials. For their part, the IDPs are concerned about the resettlement package they would receive if they were to return to their homes."
Eldoret IDPs told IRIN that top on their list of expectations was compensation for property lost or destroyed during the violence and an assurance that their property would be safe once they resettle.
"First we need the police to be impartial and not to be from one tribe; during the violence there were instances when some of the police officers watched as our property was destroyed; we need an assurance that this won't happen again," Samson Wamariana, an IDP, said.
Resettlement
Sydney Kungu, the Red Cross camp manager at the showground, said registration of new IDPs in the camp had been put on hold.
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He said the focus was now on resettlement and that arrangements were under way to move at least 1,400 IDPs to a "satellite" camp in Yamumbi - on the outskirts of Eldoret - from where they could have access to their homes and farms.
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