Nairobi — Against her expectations, Mrs Grace Odongo, who lost a guesthouse during this year's post-election violence, has received compensation from her insurance company.

The Kisumu entrepreneur recently received a Sh2.5 million cheque from UAP Insurance Company to help her reconstruct the guesthouse overlooking the lake front at Dunga beach.

Mrs Odongo suffered losses estimated at Sh13 million in the violence. And this only a few months after she declined a Sh25 million offer from an interested buyer.

"By then, I was planning to expand the premises to include conference facilities and a modern kitchen," she said.

This was never to be as two guesthouses belonging to the Odongo family were the target of raids by a mob of looters.

While the one in Dunga was burnt down, the quick response of police officers saved another establishment in Milimani from attack.

Looted valuables

The youth broke into the guesthouse in Dunga, looted valuables in eight rooms and three cottages, and set the place on fire.

They also brought down the perimeter wall. The Odongo family had just completed renovations.

"They carried away all the furniture, utensils, computers and kitchen equipment. Even trees that stood in the compound were cut down and carried away," Mrs Odongo says.

With her development plans shattered, she has had to pick up the pieces of her three-year investment and start afresh.

Her immediate plans include cleaning up the mess that was left behind by the looters and vandals, fence off the compound and hire a caretaker.

Though the amount received in compensation is less than her loss, she is confident she will get back to where she was before misfortune struck.

Also exuding confidence is Mr Maurice Ager, the managing director of Morilink Infosystems, who was also compensated by UAP Insurance Company.

In addition to destroying equipment like satellite gadgets, the violence also cost him customers for his information technology company.

"I lost a tertiary institution that was one of my major clients," Mr Ager says. The violence came as he was laying ground to venture into offering training services.

Although he is back in business on a smaller scale, he is upbeat tht he will regain his footing in networking, computer hardware sales and Internet services.

"I only need about three months and I will be back to where I was," he says. He received a Sh591,000 cheque from the insurance company.

The two were among 10 other businesspeople in Kisumu who received cheques worth Sh20 million in a Sh60 million countrywide compensation scheme for victims of post-election violence.

The UAP compensation came only a couple of weeks after Kenya Orient Insurance Limited presented cheques to four clients who were affected by the post-election violence.

Mr Prakash Vaitha, the proprietor of Soni Fuel Injection that specialises in the repair of injection pumps for diesel engines, was presented with a Sh6.5 million cheque for the losses he suffered.

His premises and all the spares and equipment, valued at Sh13 million, were burnt down after the premises caught fire from an adjacent building that was set ablaze by a riotous mob.

Now, he has reason to smile as he has begun reconstruction. Though aware that it would take time to restore the business to what it was before it was burnt down, Mr Vaitha is raring to go.

"Assuming that all goes well, it would require about 10 years to get to where I was," he says.

Destroyed property

During the cheque presentation ceremony in Kisumu, the managing director of UAP Insurance Company, Mr James Muguiyi, said that the company was not under any obligation to pay compensation for the losses.

"As the country begins the journey towards reconstruction of the lost assets, we would like to be part of it," he said.

The managing director of the Kenya Orient Insurance Limited, Mr Steve Karoki, said that all claims are to be paid at 100 per cent liability.

Any destroyed property, he explains, would have to be valued professionally before compensation is paid out based on the property's absolute value.

"Due to the depreciation of many of the machines that were burnt in the workshop, the value was factored in, hence the lower claim compensation," he said of Mr Vaitha's company.