One in ten people in Kenya are internally displaced - ODI
LONDON (AlertNet) - One of the great joys of wandering past the coffee shops, kiosks, money changers and offices along Nairobi's main Kenyatta Avenue is the array of languages you hear.
Kenya's capital has for years provided a haven for many a dissident, refugee or rebel from neighbouring countries such as Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia.
But it has also been the natural settling point for wave upon wave of internally displaced people fleeing politically-orchestrated ethnic violence, human rights abuses, natural disasters and chronic under-development compounded by rampant corruption, weak governance and rule of law, according to the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).
Recent estimates put the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kenya at 399,000 people, the London-based think tank says, or just under 10 percent of the country’s population of 39 million.
In a new report, “Sanctuary in the city? Urban displacement and vulnerability in Nairobi,” ODI researchers examines how internal displacement has fuelled urbanisation in Kenya, home to Africa’s seventh-largest IDP population.
It looks at protection threats and other problems that contribute to IDP vulnerability, as well as identifying ways in which the international aid community can best help IDP communities in Nairobi and how this should shape humanitarian and development programmes.
"...as this study has found, there is significant overlap in many cases between 'forced' and 'voluntary' movement to Nairobi," the report said.
"Whatever their rationale for choosing city life, the vast majority of the urban poor, both displaced and non-displaced, have settled in the slums where life may be marginally preferable to rural areas of origin for some, but where their existence is characterised by poverty, violence and an overwhelming sense of despair."
Despite the scope of these problems, the Kenyan authorities and, to a degree the international community, have been reluctant to address the issue of internal displacement, ODI said.
Indeed, since 2008 there has been no accurate data on the number or fate of IDPs uprooted by Kenya’s post-election clashes who sought safety in urban areas rather than going into camps. Those who stayed with extended family or found ways of fending for themselves were left out of official figures and have struggled to receive recognition or compensation.
‘INTEGRATED IDPS’
These so-called ‘integrated IDPs’ account for about half of the 660,000 people who fled their homes following the post-election violence, the worst in the country’s history.
ODI said that according to U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, those who were unwilling to go home due to fear of renewed violence have often formed self-help groups, buying their own land.
Others have moved to ‘transit sites’ near their original homes, usually near police posts or churches. They commute to work on their farms during the day but return to the transit sites in the evening, either because they cannot afford to rebuild their homes or due to fear of attack by hostile neighbours.
The failure to resettle these IDPs and provide them with help to restart their lives often causes more problems with gang leaders exploiting a sense of grievance and resentment to bolster their ranks. For example, the murderous, mafia-style Mungiki has over the years recruited many young men who had been forcibly evicted from their homes during the era of former President Daniel arap Moi
Kenyans who lived through the post-election bloodshed are worried about whether next year's polls will trigger more tribally-tinged violence and what that may bring.
"High levels of insecurity, the physical and psychological legacy of the post-election violence, ongoing ethnic tensions and unequal access to housing and employment opportunities and unrealistic expectations of the new Constitution are fuelling fears of a fresh round of ethnic violence in 2012," ODI warned.
(Editing by Katy Migiro and Rebekah Curtis)
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