Palaver

Even before dealing with IDPs from the post-election violence of four years ago, the Government is suddenly saddled with another lot from the Sinai fire tragedy: different circumstances, same end result. Now that the Ministry of Special Programmes has promised to pay rent for the new set currently camped at the Tom Mboya Social Hall, what, pray, does Minister Esther Murugi have to tell the post-election IDPs who have been waiting for four years for the Government to attend to their plight?

Still on the Sinai disaster, a correspondent says if the Government opts to resettle those displaced by the Monday fire, and others now living in the way leaves for the pipeline, it will become an expensive exercise that opens the door to ambulance chasing lawyers and multiple litigation by a variety of aggrieved groups.
What, for instance, will stop those squatters living just metres from the railway line in Kibera from demanding compensation in order to move? Furthermore, he asks, is it right for the Government to use taxpayers’ money to reward people for breaking the law? After all squatting inside the reserved 60-metre radius of strategic installations like power lines the railway and oil pipeline is illegal.