Integrated Internally Displaced People (IDPs) under the National IDPs Network have called on the Kenya Kwanza administration to complete the compensation and resettlement programme of the 2007/2008 post-election violence victims.
Addressing the media in Kitale, Trans Nzoia County, the network’s Secretary General Raphael Eyanai said over 200,000 IDPs are yet to be resettled and compensated sixteen years after the post-election clashes.
Eyanai said the government has the register of all the people to be compensated and resettled.
“Initially, this issue was in 32 counties and in 2017, the government managed to pay some IDPS and we are currently talking about 200,000 people, a manageable number,” Eyanai.
He further stated that the IDP problem is a security matter and should be addressed urgently.
Compensation and resettlement of IDPS was initially domiciled in the Ministry of Devolution (Special Programmes) before it was transferred to the Office of the President.
On his part, Jackson Ole Soita, the chairperson of integrated IDPs said some of their children have dropped out of school because they are unable to raise the school fees of their children.
“It is sad that we are forced to stay with our children at home because poverty has really affected us. We therefore ask our President William Ruto and his administration to intervene and give us a lasting solution,” Ole Soita said.
IDPs are now street children
On her part, Elisabeth Ngaruiya an IDP from Kuresoi in Nakuru County said their children and grandchildren are now begging in the streets of towns and cities in Kenya.
She also said incidences of teenage pregnancies in their areas are attributed to poverty.
“Majority if not all of the street children you see in our urban centres are children of 2007 post-election violence victims. They resorted to running to the streets because they had nothing to eat where they were hosted after displacement,” Ngaruiya said.
Joseph Kibe, the network’s patron further said the government should address their concerns like other matters of national interest.
“The government should resettle and compensate us just like the government deals with climate change, the elderly, and people living with disability, orphans and other special interest groups,” Kibe appealed.
In June this year, Interior and National Administration Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said IDPs are a human rights issue and that the compensation scheme will continue.
Reports from human rights organizations indicate that at least 660,000 people were displaced during the 2007/2008 post-election violence.
