A lobby group championing the interests of the victims of 2007/2008 post election violence has a issued the government with a three-week ultimatum to disburse pending settlement dues.
Officials of the National IDPs Network who converged in Trans Nzoia took issue with the government for forgetting the plight of 170,000 members despite a budgetary allocation being made by parliament. “If the government does not act within the three-week period,
Integrated IDPs within 22 Counties will present themselves physically at state offices within their localities to present their grievances,” said the group’s secretary Raphael Eyanai.
Mr. Eyanai said the government made a partial payment of Kshs 50,000 to each of the 83, 891 members while the rest are yet to be attended to.
He took issue with some government officers whom he accused of frustrating efforts to submit funds to the group despite the fact that they met all the stated requirements. “We have written several memos to the National Assembly, the Senate, the office of the Attorney General and the Ministry of Interior but we have not received any feedback,” said Eyanai.
The group’s Deputy National Coordinator George Njoroge dispelled a narrative by some quarters that the government settled all IDPs saying there are still groups which were left out. “The fact that some people were integrated does not mean that they were not affected. We have a right to demand for our compensation,” said Mr. Njoroge.
They also want the national government to reconstitute the National Consultative Coordination Committee (NCC) to spearhead completion of pending resettlements. The lobby group said the suspension of the Committee has hampered effective settlement of the remaining group of the victims who fell prey to post election clashes witnessed in 2007/8. “A failure to reconstitute the committee has derailed the full
implementation of the agreement made between IDPs and the government on September 26, 2015,” said Samuel Tumbo.
