Misery dogs Kenya's displaced
2008-06-10 21:35
Narok - Margaret Wangoi, with her three children and nothing to her name but a bag of maize, is back in her home town of Narok, five months after fleeing the deadly post-electoral violence that swept Kenya.
She has no roof above her head, not even a tent, but in the authorities' record books, she is no longer an "internally displaced person" (IDP).
Margaret is part of a group of 54 families from Narok, a town on the edge of the Rift Valley located around 140 kilometres west of the capital Nairobi.
Forced to flee her home at the height of the country's ethnically-driven violence after disputed December elections, the families - mainly of the Kikuyu tribe - sought refuge at a camp in Limuru town near the capital.
Yet in Narok, a dusty town home to the Maasai tribe, the return of some displaced families has turned out to be a misery. This comes after a government pledge to help them resettle.
Promises
"We were promised we would receive funds, tents and support to start our lives," said Samuel Ngururi Mwangi, the spokesperson of a group of returnees.
"We didn't find .... any government official even up to this moment," he added. "That tree has been our home for the last so many days."
The families have been spending nights in the open since arriving here sixteen days ago despite living metres away from a camp for the displaced housing nearly 700 people.
"If we continued staying in Limuru, we were told we would no longer get assistance," said 30-year-old Peter Nthuku.
Nonetheless, on Monday, a government official told a new group of displaced families in Limuru that a truck had been readied to ferry them back to their former homes in Narok.
Asked whether the families were willing to return in the face of fears of fresh clashes, lack of funds to restart their lives or even land to cultivate, the official responded: "Let's see how many of them get into the truck and you'll have your answer."
By-election test
Fears of renewed ethnic clashes have surfaced ahead of Wednesday's by-elections in five constituencies seen as a test of the country's fledgling coalition government formed in April.
After two hours of animated haggling between the government official and the families, some 50 people loaded their belongings onto the truck for the two-hour drive to Narok.
In disbelief and consternation, the families alighted at the end of their journey with barely any resources to put an end to their disrupted lives.
"I don't know where to go. We were promised we would get some tents. My house has been rented to other people. I don't have relatives here," said 27-year-old Wangoi.
"I left there (Limuru) because there was no future there. I'm going to try to start a fresh life and (provide) for my children."
- SAPA