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Kenya: Rebuilding Shattered Lives Proving Tough
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The Nation (Nairobi)
8 May 2008
Posted to the web 8 May 2008
Cosmas Butunyi And Sollo Kiragu
Nairobi
When calm returned to Kipkelion about a month ago, Leah Cheptanui was among the first people to move out of the internal refugee camp at the district commissioner's compound.
Bursting with optimism, she went back to the nearby shopping centre where for many years she had lived in a rental house, before post-election violence brought her life to a standstill.
Though all her earthly belongings had gone up in flames, Ms Cheptanui hoped that she would rise from the ashes.
But her hope was short-lived; life was not what she had expected it to be. Menial jobs, her mainstay, were hard to come by.
Casual labourer
"Some of the people on whose farms I worked fled during the violence and are living in camps," she says. Threatened by insecurity, even the farmers who stayed behind did not till their land, which meant no work for the casual labourer.
Now, providing food for her three children and two grandchildren has become a headache, and she has had to go back to the camp whenever food rations are being distributed.
However, her manna seems to be drying up with the shutting down of the Kipkelion camp where she got food.
Raising the Sh250 monthly rent for her single room where she lives with her family has also become a problem, and she is worried that her landlord will not keep her much longer.
The same fate is faced by many internal refugees who camped at the recently closed Kipkelion camp.
Last week, Rift Valley PC Noor Hassan Noor launched a resettlement plan in the province dubbed Operation Rudi Nyumbani (Return Home) at Kipkelion, where more than 500 families had been camping.
The families moved to their previous homes with the tents, but the administrator promised that the Government would provide building materials, as well as farm inputs for them to restart their lives.
However, life out of the camp remains uncertain for the squatters who were evicted from people's farms where they had lived for many years.
Their former hosts are not willing to accept them back, and Kipkelion DC Aden Halake says those who have nowhere to go will be moved to an open space next to the Londiani town council offices as a solution is sought.
Promised land
One of the squatters, Mr Henry Inyambula, says he was among 109 squatters who had been promised land by the local county council after they were evicted from Sauri in 1988.
Since then, he had lived in rental houses with his family as he awaited fulfilment of the promise.
His problems were compounded by his decision to contest the Lesiro civic seat.
He was targeted in the violence that followed the elections due to his party affiliation. He cannot go back to renting a house as he lost everything in the chaos.
"I just want a small piece of land where I can put up a house for my family," he says.
Amid the resettlement effort, there are rising voices of dissent from the displaced people and some of their leaders.
Mr Tito Kioko, who was living at the Kipkelion camp, is one of those reluctant to go back home.
Moves back
"I know those who took my property and I do not think I would be comfortable seeing them using my stuff," he says.
A disagreement, he fears, is inevitable between them and their neighbours. He also wants to be assured of security before he moves back with his family.
A section of the civic leaders also doubt the success of the resettlement plan.
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"The resettlement is being hurriedly done without seeking dialogue and lasting peace with the aggressors," says Mr Jackson Kikwai of the Kipsirchet ward in Londiani Town council. He wishes the programme was delayed and instead peace meetings held in the constituency.
His apprehension is shared by Londiani town ward counterpart David Githunguri.
"Peace cannot be forced, and people have to be left to coexist," he says.
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