More than 50 Internally Displaced Persons during the 2007/2008 post election violence from West Pokot County held a peaceful demonstration in Makutano town over their delayed resettlement.
Led by Stephen Githinji the IDPs said they have been living in abject poverty for eight years, and that the government has not compensated them in any way.
Githinji said senior government leaders promised that their problems would be addressed but up to now the government has no plans of compensating them.
“Since then we have continued to suffer in silence. We decided to demonstrate to get assistance from the President,” he said.
Samuel Karanja, an IDP, said all the internally displaced persons were profiled and their details submitted to the government.
“The situation was worse in West Pokot County, the Red Cross saved us and took us to Kitale IDP camp then after six months a Kenya army lorry came and forceful took us back to our homes.” He said.
He said they were only given Ksh. by the government and until now the government has totally ignored and neglected them.
Lucy Muigai, who was displaced from Eldoret and lost her three kins, accused the Jubilee government of carrying out selective compensation.
Muigai said most of the IDPs have not been indemnified and asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene.
“Our leaders, some of whom are responsible for our woes, are busy politicking and seeking positions come 2017 as we suffer for their sins,” she said.
Right now they are angry with Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri for not resettling IDPs in West Pokot County.
The IDPs said the government had allocated money for their resettlement but to date, they are still languishing as IDPs.
“We are calling on Kiunjuri to show how the money, which was given out by the then Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta was spent,” they said.
They called for the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission to investigate the leaders involved.
