Police among beneficiaries of Sh200,000 IDPs payout launched by DP William Ruto

DP William Ruto presenting a dummy cheque to an IDP

NAKURU: Police officers are among those listed as internally displaced persons to receive the Sh200,000 payout launched by Deputy President William Ruto three weeks ago.

The Standard has established that seven police officers serving in Njoro are among about 1,000 people to be compensated. The list has been forwarded to the Devolution ministry to effect payments.

According to a detective who spoke to The Standard, the officers from various stations within the sub-county were not genuine beneficiaries but their names were fraudulently inserted.

“It is shocking that names of officers stationed in Njoro sub-county are on the compensation list despite not having been victims of forest eviction,” said the detective.

He said the officers do not come from areas which were affected during forest eviction that took place in Sigotik, Kapkembu and Teret three years ago.

When The Standard sought a comment from Deputy County Commissioner Mohammed Hassan Noor, he said they were investigating the matter. Mr Noor said four officers are suspected to be on the list. He, however, refused to show The Standard the list and could not divulge the ranks of the officers in the compensation list.

“Various IDP committees, local administrators and national government officials are investigating the matter to establish if the officers were listed as beneficiaries,” he said.

Noor added that the committees will also establish if the officers used to live in the forest before the eviction exercise in 2012.

“The committee will find out how the officers went to live in the forest and how they were affected during eviction,” he added.

The list had a total of 1,156, names of which, 1,050 were profiled for the ongoing compensation while 79 were rejected.

However, he said compensation of the IDPs evicted from Mau forest in 2012 would continue though there were some victims missing because of what he termed as a typing error.

 ILLEGAL BENEFICIARIES

Noor said some beneficiaries did not have identity cards while some used those of their close relatives to register.

The 1,077 individuals began receiving the Sh200,000 last Tuesday. So far more than 90 per cent have received their money through Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB).

The deputy commissioner said all the IDP camps in the sub-county including Kapkembu, Teret and Sigotik have been closed and temporary structures destroyed to avoid illegal beneficiaries cropping up.

Before the compensation process began, the Government partnered with KCB to provide the IDPs with Sh10,000 to help them relocate from the camps before giving them all the money.

“The Government will not allow anybody who goes back to the camp to demand compensation,” he said.

The beneficiaries have bought land in Kapsita and Molo and have settled.

He said most people were taking advantage of the process to lobby their friends and relatives to pose as forest evictees and receive the money.

Mr Ruto while launching the last lap of compensation said the Government was to spend Sh1.1 billion to resettle about 5,378 internally displaced families.

The DP said the mission was to ensure issues concerning IDPs were dealt with and that all the affected families lived peacefully and with dignity. Speaking at Teret IDP camp in Njoro three weeks ago, Ruto said the Government had set aside Sh2 billion for the resettlement.