IDPs have hit out at the chairman Panel of Eminent African Personalities Koffi Annan for visiting the country and failing to have a session with them.
The IDPs said that five years after the PEV many were still languishing in camps and had high hopes of meeting Annan. The leaders drawn from various parts of the country gave the government an ultimatum to resettle them by December this year failure to which they could camp in parliament.
According to the national chairman IDP network Patrick Githinji, the coalition government had failed to fully implement Agenda IV which
dealt with the resettlement of IDPs.
“We are concerned that Annan decided to meet Kibaki and Raila and ignore the IDPs whose suffering led to the formation of the coalition
government,” he said Githinji called for the disbandment of the resettlement board that is led by former minister Moses Akaranga
noting that it had failed to address the issue of resettlement.
According to him, the board should not be led by a politician and IDPs should be fully involved in the formation of a new board. He disputed claims by the government that out of 6,802 IDPs in camps only 1,200 were yet to be resettled noting that there were over 3,800
IDPs in various camps.
“Out of the twenty IDPs camps that were to be resettled none has been fully resettled and its time a durable solution was found through the
formation of an IDP policy,” he said.
Reading resolutions reached after a two day workshop, Lucy Njeri called for the resettlement of the IDPs by December 2012. She called on the ICC prosecutor to have a meeting with the IDP leaders during her tour of the country later this month.
“The ICC is an independent body and not dependent on politics and personal interest and we urge for patience on its process,” she said.
The chairlady IDP Ebenezer camp in Gilgil dismissed the government policy to give all the IDPs land saying that this will not work.
“Not all IDPs in the country were farmers and the government should consider giving those who want cash so that they can restart the
businesses,” she said.
On his part Martin Kamau hit out at Minister Esther Murugi for dismissing integrated IDPs noting that they were undergoing untold suffering. On Mau evictees, one of the victims Lily Chebet said that the victims were suffering in various make-shift camps awaiting resettlement.
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