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Another Blow to Land
Clashes Victims
The Nation (Nairobi)
March 31,
2004
Posted to the web March 31, 2004
Nairobi
Thousands of
people displaced during the politically instigated land clashes in
the 1990s will have nowhere to go after the Government ordered
them out of forests by today.
Their
representatives told a seminar in Nairobi that most of them had
been cultivating in the forests since they were displaced from
their farms. Some 2,600 people who have been cultivating in Kieni
forest and 4,000 in Mau forest were thrown out out their farms in
Enoospukia, Molo, Olenguruone, Thessalia, Likoni and other parts
of the country.
Their
representatives want Subukia MP Koigi wa Wamwere's motion on
resettlement to be revived in Parliament to address their plight.
They accused
politicians and members of the provincial administration mentioned
in the Akiwumi Commission as having perpetrated the clashes of
frustrating resettlement plans.
The seminar,
organised by the Kenya Human Rights Commission to form a national
network of displaced people, was held at Panafric Hotel.
However,
delegates disagreed on how the list of displaced people could be
compiled. Some wanted victims to produce land ownership documents,
while others did not.
Ms Jennifer
Miano, the KHRC executive director, said the Government had
abdicated its responsibility of resettling displaced people.
"Wishing
away the problem will not solve the problem of internally
displaced people as land is an emotive and complex issue,"
she said.
Evicting people
from the forests was not a solution to environmental degradation,
she added.
Ms Julliette
Masiga, a Refugee Consortium of Kenya advocacy officer, said
internally displaced people were like refugees and should be
provided with basic social services and funding.
Mr Keffa Magenyi
from Nakuru suggested that the landless people be resettled in
Agricultural Development Corporation farms.
He said Aids was
spreading fast among the displaced people after poverty drove many
of them into prostitution on the Nairobi Nakuru highway.
Link : http://allafrica.com/stories/200403310265.html
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