Thousands of people live in inhuman conditions four years after disputed elections caused widespread violence in Kenya, a U.N. official says
NAIROBI (AlertNet) – The Kenyan government plans to give all Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) compensation of 500,000 Kenya shillings ($4,866) each so that they can start life afresh, Business Daily newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Some 1,220 Kenyans were killed and more than 660,000 people were displaced following Kenya’s disputed elections when violence flared between supporters of rival presidential contenders, fuelled by historical grievances between different ethnic communities.
Four years on, thousands of families are living in inhuman conditions in camps, with leaking tents, overflowing pit latrines and children missing out on school, a senior United Nations official said on Tuesday.
The compensation programme will begin this year, if funding of 177 billion Kenya shillings ($1.7 million) is secured, according to the report.
In the first phase, people who were forced from their homes by politically-instigated violence during the 2007, 1997 and 1992 elections will be given a "golden handshake", as well as those who were evicted from government forests where they had settled illegally.
“This is the phase by which we intend to clear the country of IDP camps by end of this year,” the newspaper quotes Special Programmes Minister Esther Murugi saying at a school in Nyeri over the weekend.
The second phase, beginning in 2012, will see the government negotiating compensation terms with 350,000 IDPs who sought refuge with friends and relatives during the post-election violence, rather than moving to IDP camps.
Government figures show that 6,713 families remain displaced, but the figure is likely to be much higher since those who fled violence without identity cards were not registered as displaced.
Murugi said 4,000 IDPs would benefits from the first phase of the programme.
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