Kenya: Joshua Ebei - 'It Will Be Difficult to Start a Life Here But We Will Try'
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
INTERVIEW
25 July 2008
Posted to the web 25 July 2008
Lodwar
Joshua Ebei is a chairman in one of the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Lodwar town in the northwestern district of Turkana Central.
Formerly employed by a member of the Kikuyu ethnic group in Nandi South District of Rift Valley Province, Ebei fled back to his ancestral land when his employer was displaced by post-election violence. He talked to IRIN about his experiences:
"I went to Nandi South when I was still young and after school I was employed in a company owned by a Kikuyu. Life was okay until the violence started after the elections.
"Although Turkanas [Ebei's ethnic group] were not being targeted for eviction, if you were employed by a Kikuyu you suddenly found yourself in a hopeless situation.
"It did not help when a Turkana Member of Parliament was appointed by the PNU [President Mwai Kibaki's political party, Kibaki is an ethnic Kikuyu]. We were told that we had betrayed our fellow Nilotes.
"Most of us fled to the police station before being transferred to Eldoret and then Kitale [towns in the Rift Valley region]. In April we found our way back to Lodwar.
"Although this is my ancestral land I do not know where to go as I have lived for most of my life elsewhere.
"Here, there are former landowners, squatters, businesspeople and employees like me. The few who had land are planning to sell and resettle elsewhere.
"I also do not want to go back. What will happen to me in 2012 [when the next elections are due]?
"At the camp there are children who do not know where their parents are. We have registered them in other households so they can be taken care of by the mothers in the camp.
"Right now we are relying on the church and different NGOs for assistance. The government also helps us sometimes. Some of the girls are working as house-helps in the town.
"The local village elders have offered us some land but what is preventing us from leaving the camp is a lack of food, water and shelter. We came with nothing when we fled.
"Now that we have land, we need to be supported to build our houses like the IDPs in other places. No matter where you are displaced you are still an IDP.
"It will be difficult to start a life here but we will try."
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[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
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Copyright © 2008 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
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