IDPs evicted from Nairobi dumped in Nakuru town

 

At least 40 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are stranded in Nakuru after they were moved from Nairobi.

The IDPs were allegedly ejected from an area where they were camping near Parliament buildings by people who identified themselves as Government officials.

Under the name 'Kenya Refugees', the IDPs have been camping near Parliament buildings for the past one month seeking dialogue with the Government without success.

They had sought refuge in Uganda after fleeing the 2007/2008 post-election violence.

Their chairman Richard Kimungui said they were asleep at midnight on a verandah of a building near Parliament when five men who identified themselves as Government officials arrived with two minibuses and told them to get aboard.

Kimungui said the men told them they were relocating them to a new place and ordered them to pick all their belongings and board the vehicles without indicating exactly where they were being taken to.

He said some members of the group were missing as only 42 of them made it to Nakuru, yet they were 82 in total camping in Nairobi.

He said the officers told them they were tarnishing the Government's image by camping near Parliament.

"Masked officials stormed the verandah where we were sleeping and began terrorising us before they ordered us to board the vehicles," said Kimungui.

He said the two minibuses were linked to a Nairobi Sacco.

He said after hours of travel, the men ordered them to alight from the vehicles to stretch as they fuelled, only for the drivers to speed off in the direction they had come from.

Kimungui said the Kenyan IDP refugees returned from Uganda on May 5, last year following an agreement between the Ugandan government, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Kenyan government.

Kenya Red Cross Nakuru County Coordinator James Gichumu said most of the victims had been received in Uganda with injuries and appeared weak.