Failure to resettle IDP’s cause for food shortage in camps

By Antony Gitonga

The acute food problem in IDPs camps in Naivasha has been blamed on the governments’ failure to resettle the victims of the post election violence.

The IDPs have admitted that many are not involved in permanent self-sustaining projects as they wait for the promised resettlement.

According to Rose Wanjiku from Jikaze camp in Mai Mahiu, the area is dry and they cannot afford hiring land for farming.

Wanjiku said that many of the IDPs had been forced to rely on the government food rations as they were not sure of their fate.

“Some of us would like to invest in this area but we have been promised resettlement which is not been carried out,” she said.

She termed the conditions in the camps as deplorable and worrying noting that many of the families were sleeping hungry.

“The most affected are the young, the old and the sick who solely rely on food rations from the government,” she said.

Meanwhile over to 300 families living in four IDP camps in Mai Mahiu Naivasha have opposed the government move to buy them land in the ongoing resettlement program.

The IDPs from Vumilia Narok, Vumilia Eldoret, Maono yetu and Amani self help group supported calls to give them cash instead.

According to the IDPs spokesman Stephen Mbugua, they had settled in the area and wanted cash so that they could start small scale businesses.

He said the IDPs were tired of empty promises five years after they were displaced from their homes at the height of the post election violence.

Mbugua wondered what had happened to special programs minister’s directive to have them given money since they had already built permanent houses in the area.

“The minister said that each family would get Sh450,000 to buy land or start an income generating activity but this has never happened,” he said, adding that the families had opted to stay in Mai Mahiu because they had built houses with the aid of donors adding that there was no reason to move from the area.