NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 7 – All Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the country have been resettled back according the government’s chief resettlement officer.
According to Special Programmes Mitigation and Resettlement Director Wilfred Ndolo, everything possible is being done to help these families in the transition process.
“We started first of all by making sure that those who were in the main camps go back to their farms by putting the right infrastructure which included the security and the provision of water which was lacking,” said Mr Ndolo.
He added that the rehabilitation of schools and other infrastructure destroyed during post election violence was currently ongoing.
“So far we have rehabilitated about 10 schools in the Rift Valley,” he said.
In an exclusive interview with Capital News, Mr Ndolo said those who were still camped at the Eldoret showgrounds were landless before the clashes and so had nowhere to go.
“It is normal internationally to have a residue of those who are landless and those who are hawkers and doing small businesses and they are not willing to go anywhere until the government gives them land,” he explained.
“But it is not the government policy to give land to such people but we are engaging them. They can either form a self help group- they buy land on their own so that we build houses for them,” he added.
Mr Ndolo said that was the only way for that group of people to get assistance.
But German Ambassador Walter Lindner is calling on the government to investigate why the IDPs in Eldoret do not want to leave the camp.
“Talk to the local people there and see what the matter is. Go to the camps and see who these people are. What is this family saying and what is that family saying,” the German envoy stated.
“Afterwards they need to see whether they can find individual solutions for this,” the envoy added. “But you have to find a solution which is reasonable and this has to be done soon since it is getting cold.”
The wintry Kenyan July hasn’t failed this year and those at the camp remain sheltering in fragile structures.
But the government said the Eldoret group was not unique. “In other areas like in Nakuru, we had other Internally Displaced Persons like that. They formed themselves into self help groups,” he pointed out.
“In Mai Mahiu in Nyandarua, we transported 14,000 people and they bought their pieces of land and we are building houses for them. They are comfortable,” he explained.
Mr Ndolo also stressed that the criteria used in the resettlement process had been air-tight.
“Those who were to be paid Sh10,000 are those who decided to go back to their farms and the Chief, the Assistant Chief and the village elders know whose farm belongs to that person,” he said.
“So once you go back to your farm, then the Chief will record your name and then submit it through the District Commissioner to this ministry for payment,” he stated.
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