The Kastaka Kairu IDP camp in Lamu. [Photo/the-star.co.ke]
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Lamu County have maintained that they will not return to their homes until they are compensated. The over 2,500 IDPs who were displaced following the incessant terror attacks in the region, have refused to return to their homes despite the assurance of security from the government.Through their spokesperson Simon Mgumba, the IDPs have asked the government to compensate them before they can consider the calls to leave the Kastaka Kairu camp.Most of the victims are residents of Kakathe, Nyongoro, Taa and Boramoyo villages. The IDPs argued that their crops, household items, and other property were destroyed after the government launched Operation Linda Boni in 2015 to flush out suspected Al Shabaab militia in the area. They argued that they do not know how they will start life if they resettle in their homes.“We are just asking them to give us something to go and begin our lives with. Just telling us to back home isn’t enough. We don’t have food there; we have lost our household items after homes were broken into. We don’t know where to start,” Mgumba said, as quoted by Baraka FM.Mgumba also noted that life at the camp has become unbearable after the government cut supplies. “Here at the camps, we are no longer getting supplies as frequently as we used to and we know that’s meant to make us go away but we won’t,” he added.