All is not gloom for those who moved out of the camps

By Steve Mkawale and Stella Mwangi

Last month, President Kibaki issued a directive that all camps holding internally displaced persons be closed.

While the directive may have unsettled those living in the camps, others like Ms Monica Waithera, once a resident of such centres, had long started rebuilding their lives.

At Karirikania village in Molo South, Waithera gets busy tending to her vegetable garden, a few metres from a house whose roof, windows and doors have been vandalised.

The presence of The Standard on Sunday team startles the 40-year-old mother of three.

"We are happy to be home. Here we can cultivate our land and produce food for the children compared to the camps where we idled for days waiting for food from the Government," she says, placing the hoe against the wall of her torn tent.

RAZED HOUSES

Waithera, like many families that returned to their homes during Operation Rudi Nyumbani (a programme to resettle IDPs), has been living in a tent near her razed house.

"It is better this way because we will rebuild our houses slowly even if the Government refuses to help us as promised," says Peter Karanja Njuguna, a primary school teacher, is hopeful that some day he will rebuild his torched semi-permanent house.

The teacher says living in camps is demeaning and those still insisting on staying are making things worse for themselves.

"Look at what we have done since we returned. My house is almost complete, my children are going to school and there are animals in our compound," he says.

In contrast to last year, Karirikania village is bubbling with life once more as young men and women return to the farms. The number of bicycles ferrying farm produce to Molo and Nakuru districts have increased along the Olenguruone-Molo road.

Even though a large number of residents spend cold nights in tents, they venture out of their homes at dawn to fend for their families.

‘NEW CANNAN’

But things are a little different at New Canaan camp on the outskirts of Nakuru town where more than 1,250 families now call home.

For the past year, Ms Susan Wanjiku has been struggling to fend for her family after they were displaced during the post-election violence.

The 44-year old grandmother had been living at the Nakuru Showground where thousands of families camped for more than nine months following the violence.

But with the launch of Operation Rudi Nyumbani, Wanjiku was among those who opted not to return to their former homes but instead pooled their resources and bought 16 acres of land dubbed ‘New Canaan’.

About 1,250 families contributed the Sh35,000, given for compensation to buy the land near Kenya Pipeline depot in Nakuru. Each family got a 21ft by 27ft portion of land to erect a tent.

Now Wanjiku lives with her four children and two grandchildren in one tent.

"It was a good thing for the President to break his long silence on the issue of IDPs. He is the Head of State and I hope to have a better place to live than a tent," says Wanjiku following Kibaki’s directive on IDP camps.

Before the violence, Wanjiku lived in Kapsabet and was a businesswoman who traded in maize.

A NICE HOUSE

"We had a nice house, never went without food and my children went to school, but life has changed for the worse now," she said.

A few kilometres from New Canaan, sits another group of former IDPs who have benefited from the generosity of two NGOs.

For Ms Mary Kiama, her new house was a gift from heaven.

"We have been sharing one tent between four families but now my children and I will have our own house," says the widow and a mother of four.

Goal Kenya, with funding from UNHCR, has constructed 205 houses for families on the 17-acre piece of land.

"We have spent around Sh5 million to construct the houses at a cost of Sh25,000 each," says project manager Gabriel Wambua

 

 

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