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Kenya/Uganda
border town sets up camps for families displaced by poll violence,
while Kenya/Tanzania border has been closed
MALABA, 3 January 2008 (IRIN) -
Johnstone Kimili still does not understand why it happened as he
describes the violence in western Kenya that forced him to seek
refuge in neighbouring Uganda.
"I am a pastor and had gone to
church that Sunday [30 December] morning. There was nothing that
indicated violence would break out," he told IRIN at a makeshift
camp in the Ugandan border town of Malaba.
"The trouble broke out immediately
after the results of the presidential polls were announced;
everything changed within 20 minutes," he said.
"Within minutes, my two shops had
been burnt down and they took everything - even the doors and
windows. I lost property worth 600,000 shillings [about US$9,000]
- including the clothes I was wearing."
Fleeing the rampaging youths,
Kimili abandoned his home of 12 years in the tiny western Kenyan
township of Malakisi and headed for Malaba, along with his family.
"I do not understand why they did
this; we voted for Kibaki because we like him, not because we hate
Luos," he said. "Perhaps they want their land back."
Dubbed one of Kenya's closest-ever
elections, the 27 December presidential polls ended with a
controversial declared win for incumbent Mwai Kibaki, but
opposition leader Raila Odinga rejected the results, triggering
violence across Kenya.
Ugandan officials in Malaba said
about 2,000 Kenyans had crossed into the town since the
announcement of the poll result. "We have registered 778 people
but about 1,000 more are staying with relatives or in hotels
around this area," George Alfred Obore said.
"We have set up two reception camps
and are appealing for blankets, mosquito nets, mattresses and
medicines, especially for children," he told IRIN on 2 January,
ahead of a meeting with the local disaster preparedness committee.
"We are still receiving people."
The two camps were set up at St
Jude and Koitangiro primary schools. At St Jude, staff from the
Uganda Red Cross had been registering the displaced civilians and
offering some aid. "Based on the ongoing registration, the most
urgent needs have to do with sanitation, beddings and food," local
leader Joseph Okiror said.
Uganda's Disaster Preparedness
Junior Minister Musa Ecweru, who visited Malaba on 2 January, said
his government was arranging food aid for the displaced Kenyans.
"We have the food; we only need to
find trucks to deliver the food," he said after an assessment
meeting with local leaders. "We hope the situation normalises soon."
Speaking to IRIN earlier in Kampala,
Ecweru said his ministry was liaising with other humanitarian
agencies to help the affected people.
Ugandan sources said hundreds of
other displaced families were in the border town of Busia and
Lwakaka area in the Mount Elgon region.
Felix Esoku, chairman of the Tororo
district disaster management committee, said there were also plans
to move the displaced to Tororo, 12km away from the border, if the
numbers swelled to over 3,000.
Malaba quiet
Since the violence erupted, the
usually bustling border town of Malaba has been quiet - just like
the road from Kampala to Malaba, where traffic was very thin.
On the day Kimili fled, gunshots
could be heard on the Kenyan side of the border as security
officials tried to contain looters vandalising shops and grabbing
property.
Police sources in Malaba said two
people were killed in the skirmishes, while several others
sustained injuries.
According to local border officials,
there has been very little traffic from the Ugandan side to the
Kenyan side since the violence broke out. There was however
movement of people from Kenya to Uganda, including the displaced
seeking refuge within Malaba area and dozens of families driving
across the border.
Sources said the displaced in
Malaba were mainly from the Kikuyu ethnic community and that
scores of Asian families also crossed the border, including 500
who reached Jinja, further west of Malaba.
"The impact has been devastating
for this small town," said Moses Okware, a local resident in
Malaba. "For example, hundreds of money changers used to do
business on the more than 10 buses that ply the Kampala-Nairobi
route daily. The buses have since stopped moving."
Hundreds of vehicles, including
trucks carrying fuel and goods to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi,
Democratic Republic of Congo and Southern Sudan that used to cross
the border daily, also temporarily stopped moving - triggering a
major fuel shortage in Uganda.
"The longer it [the violence] lasts,
the worse things get for us in Malaba," Okware added.
The waiting continues
Despite assurances that they are
safe, the displaced Kenyans in Malaba say the people behind the
violence are still threatening them.
"One of them came into this place
today; we don't know why," Lucy Kimanthi, an elderly lady lying on
a mat in a classroom at St Jude camp said. "Why are they doing
this?"
Local MP and Ugandan junior health
minister, Emmanuel Otaala, met the displaced Kenyans and appealed
for calm and understanding. Kenyan officials too addressed the
groups, repeating similar appeals.
"The main worry for Uganda is that
if it continues, there will be an economic crisis," a customs
official at Malaba told IRIN. "It is a problem of being so
landlocked. Already, it has impacted on the fuel situation in the
country - which will in turn affect other sectors."
For Kimili, the priority is for
peace to return to western Kenya so he can go back and rebuild his
business.
"I am just 31, so there is still
life to be lived," he said. "I want to return to work again. The
politicians should reconcile their differences so that we can get
on as one country."
Meanwhile, he worries about the
conditions in St Jude camp. "The Uganda Red Cross and government
officials are doing their best, but sleeping on mats, poor feeding
and poor sanitation is bad for the children," he said. "This
should really end."
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