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Homeless in the homelands - the
perils of IDP evacuation
NAIROBI, 7 January 2008 (IRIN) - Thousands of people displaced (IDPs)
by recent post-election violence in Kenya are being evacuated to
areas which, although more conducive to their safety because of
ethnic affinity, pose a risk of "destitution" because few IDPs
have homes in the areas in question, the UN Children's Agency
(UNICEF) has warned.
UNICEF communications officer for Kenya Pamela Sittoni said her
agency was "concerned that these families will be destitute and
without any help" once they arrive in towns such as Nakuru, where
the threat of physical attack is thought to be much lower than in
the areas further west from where they fled their homes.
Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes, mostly in the
multi-ethnic Rift Valley Province, the worst-affected area.
Communities perceived to have voted for President Mwai Kibaki, an
ethnic Kikuyu, have been targetted for attacks by people thought
to be supporters of Raila Odinga, who has challenged Kibaki's
re-election on the grounds of alleged poll rigging of presidential
elections held on the 27 December 2007.
"Our concern as UNICEF is that once these people are returned to
those districts and the trouble within the areas where they are
being evacuated from is deemed to be finished, then we will be
told that things are back to normal, but we don't think things
will be back to normal for these people who are being returned to
districts where they do not actually live," said Sittoni.
"UNICEF is concerned that these families will be destitute and
without any help," she added.
The UN has estimated that at least 250,000 people could be
displaced by the violence.
Rift Valley Province is inhabited mainly by ethnic Kalenjin, but
the Kikuyu form a significant minority of the province's residents
and have borne the brunt of the violence both there and in other
areas of western Kenya outside the city of Kisumu.
Displaced people wishing to leave the Rift Valley have been given
military escorts out of the region to areas they perceive to be
safer, on account of ethnic homogeneity.
Sittoni said UNICEF was also concerned that health facilities and
schools could face staff shortages as a result of the displacement
and evacuation of people from violence-hit areas.
Save the Children, meanwhile, said about half of those displaced,
including those injured, were children.
"Thousands of children have been deeply emotionally affected by
what they have experienced. The camps are full of children crying
uncontrollably and their parents are themselves too traumatised to
cope," said Jan Coffey, Save the Children's director for Kenya,
said in a statement. "They will be scared, confused, vulnerable
and, in many cases, sleeping rough without enough food or water."
A longer-term recovery strategy for the displaced would have to be
found, especially for those who might choose not to return to
their homes in the strife-torn areas, according to Sharad
Shankardass, spokesman for UN-Habitat.
"That becomes a much more complicated issue and has to be done
with the government - in terms of land restitution, property
restitution, and working on some kind of strategy for making sure
that people either get their homes and property back or, if they
don't, some kind of accommodation," said Shankardass.
The UN World Food Programme reported that convoys of lorries
carrying food aid for displaced people were on their way to
western Kenya.
Twenty trucks loaded with 670 tonnes of food - enough to feed at
least 70,000 people for two weeks - arrived in Nairobi from the
port of Mombasa on 6 January. Nine of the trucks unloaded their
food in Nairobi and the remaining 11 headed on to the town of
Eldoret on 7 January. WFP was also taking food from Eldoret to
Kisumu, where an eruption of post-election violence displaced
thousands.
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