Only 9,000 families have been resettled by the government
The national chairman for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Peter Kariuki says that more families are still living in camps and under horrible conditions.
Speaking to the press in Naivasha, Kariuki raised an alarm at the way the government went silent on the issue, citing that many families were still grappling with their IDP status.
He argued that the families were yet to be compensated for the losses they incurred during the 2007/2008 post-election violence that rocked the country.
“It is only a small fraction of the total majority that has been compensated. We had at least 165,000 families who were displaced according to the official statistics from the government. Yet, many continue to languish in poverty yet they were extremely rich before the violence,” he added.
Kariuki cited that the inhumane conditions in the camps made it hard for the IDPS to live there.
“Majority of the IDPs still live in tents and when it rains they get flooded and also end up with water borne diseases. Many of them still cannot afford better health care for even diseases like flu and cough,” he added.
Kariuki cited that majority of the IDPS living with HIV did not have proper access to nutritional foods or Anti-Retroviral (ARVs) drugs and had to rely on hand-outs.
“We have and cases of such people dying because they did not have the proper meals and better health care facilities. Yet, free health care is a basic human right for all Kenyans,” he added.
He called on the government to fasten the resettlement process.
“The integrated IDPS also need to be looked after. It is unfortunate that they have been neglected in the whole resettlement process and did not get any compensation whatsoever,” he added.