Displaced post-election violence victims remain in camps 17 years later

A section of Pipeline IDP camp in Nakuru on August ‎30, ‎2023. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

Joseph Kuria, aged 64, lives in a cramped, makeshift shelter in a crowded settlement within Pipeline Estate in Nakuru Town. His dwelling, barely 21 by 24 feet, is home to his family of five and is one among thousands built by internally displaced persons (IDPs) on a congested 16-acre parcel of land.

It has been 17 years since the 2007/2008 post-election violence changed Kuria’s life irreversibly. Once a worker on a sisal farm in Rongai, where he lived with his wife and four children, Kuria recalls a life of dignity, security, and stability.