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Kenyans ordered to leave camps
14/05/2008 16:00 - (SA)
Nairobi - Kenyan officials backed by armed police are forcing thousands of Kenyans - displaced by post-election violence - to leave a refugee camp, residents and an international aid worker said on Wednesday.
The head of Doctors Without Borders, Remi Carrier, said local officials accompanied by armed police officers went from tent to tent on Wednesday in a camp housing 9 000 people in the western town of Kitale, and ordering people to leave in a matter of hours.
A woman who objected was beaten unconscious, witnesses said.
Catherine Nakhumicha said a high-ranking district official hit her 23-year-old cousin, Dorcas Nelima, in the face. When she collapsed and began screaming, he seized a log of firewood and beat her for several minutes until she was unconscious. The official, accompanied by armed police, threatened others with the stick when they came to investigate the screams, she said.
Nowhere to go
Another resident of the camp, Ronald Barasa, said officials would not listen when he explained that he, his pregnant wife and five young children had nowhere to go, but the family left after seeing a neighbour's young son shot dead in front of them, he said.
"The police have removed my tent ... put it in the road," said Barasa, who is 42. "They say we must leave this camp. They say they don't want to see anybody because (Mwai)Kibaki says we must go home," he said.
Carrier said many of the camp's inhabitants have nowhere to go, and even those recuperating from surgery are being told they must leave.
The government is anxious for displaced farmers to return home and plant crops during the rainy season, which already started. Kenya faces a severe shortfall of the staple corn, just as world prices are skyrocketing, because many farmers' homes and fields were burnt in the violence.
Considering fleeing to Uganda
Last week the government launched an operation to help the displaced get home. But many interviewed by The Associated Press said they fear more attacks if they return. Others who left camps swiftly have returned, saying they found inadequate food, shelter and security.
At the Kitale camp, Carrier said many people were considering fleeing to neighbouring Uganda.
"They are saying if we can't be displaced in our own country, we will be refugees in Uganda," he said.
Stephen Ndichu, a father of three, said he would never go back, because a mob had attacked him with machetes and left him for dead.
"I can never go back after what I've experienced. I saw someone skinned alive. There is too much hate," he said. "These politicians have reached agreement before but it didn't last. Why will it last this time?"
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