Kenya: Speedy reform needed to deal with past injustices and prevent future displacement

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^{31 December 2009}

Kenya is still recovering from the December 2007 post-election violence that split the country along ethnic lines and left a very high number of people internally displaced. An estimated 1,300 Kenyans were killed and 600,000 forced from their homes. The government’s return programme in 2008 and 2009 was marred by irregularities, and IDPs and civil society organisations accused the government of enforcing unsafe returns, and of corruption in disbursing compensation monies. Despite government claims that the majority of IDPs had been resettled, a substantial number were still living in camps and with host communities at the end of 2009. The government was also accused of neglecting the claims for resettlement and compensation of groups of people who had been displaced by earlier violence.

Kenya has still a way to go in finding durable solutions for IDPs, despite ratifying the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region (the Great Lakes Pact) and signing the Kampala Convention in 2009. Despite efforts by the government to formulate a national policy and to resettle those displaced by the 2007 violence, significant numbers remained without a home or livelihood. During the year, the government made no significant effort to profile or assess the needs of populations displaced by conflict or violence.

Internal displacement is not a new phenomenon in Kenya. The country experienced politically-motivated violence in 1991, in 1997, and more recently violence and human rights violations which caused displacement in Mount Elgon and northern Kenya. In 2009, ongoing inter-clan conflicts in pastoralist areas in north-western and north-eastern Kenya displaced thousands of people and led to the loss of over 400 lives. In Isiolo and Mandera Districts, local human rights organisations accused government security forces of committing human rights violations that led to displacement.

Efforts to bring perpetrators of violence and displacement to justice did not lead to prosecutions in 2009. The government’s Commission of Inquiry on Post Election Violence recommended the establishment of local tribunals to identify and prosecute those suspected of inciting and engaging in violence, but parliament blocked the proposal. The Commission handed over the names of those implicated in the violence to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, but at the end of 2009 the ICC was yet to undertake investigations.

In response to the post-election displacement, the government set up the National Humanitarian Fund for Mitigation and Resettlement of Victims of Post-election Violence in early 2008 to help families return to areas they had been displaced from. The Fund was intended to provide cash grants to help with the logistics of return, to support returnees replace basic household items and also rebuild houses.

Since 2008, the government has helped a large number of IDPs to return but, even after it forcibly closed camps in 2009, a significant number of IDPs were still in transit camps or living with hosts at the end of the year. According to the Ministry of State for Special Programmes (MoSSP), over 3,700 households displaced by the post-election violence were still living in 25 transit sites in Molo, Uasin Gishu/Wareng, and Trans Nzoia West/Kwanza Districts.

An audit commissioned by the Kofi Annan-led Panel of Eminent African Personalities reported that that some 19,000 people uprooted by the 2007 election violence were yet to be resettled and that 62 per cent of IDPs had not been provided with funds to construct their houses. Some of these families were still awaiting the government grants to return to their farms, although the government was providing food assistance through MoSSP. Over 6,800 internally displaced families also required support from the government to access land and livelihood opportunities. The government has committed to purchase land and allocate 2.25 acres to each household and resettle these families in an eco-village.

Representatives of civil society organisations, the media and IDPs themselves all reported in 2009 that return funds had been grossly mismanaged by government officials who reportedly embezzled large quantities of the money and denied IDPs their entitlement. Promises of resettlement land for IDPs were not realised by the end of the year, and the government could not account for over $19 million allocated to buy the land.

14 January 2010: Corruption keeps resettlement funds from IDPs

Kenya’s government faces internal wrangling over the allocation of 1.4 billion shillings ($19 million) to buy land for IDPs. The Standard newspaper has reported that government officials have taken millions of shillings meant for resettling IDPs and then claimed that they had been disbursed to beneficiaries. IDPs were shocked when they were shown documents purporting that they had been paid; more than 500 IDPs at Nakuru Pipeline camp are yet to receive money to help them become self-reliant again.

According to The Daily Nation, the Minister for Special Programmes rejected the audit report compiled by the Office of the President which blamed her ministry for the loss of Sh200 million ($2.7 million), saying that she had in March 2009 asked the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) to investigate corruption involving members of the provincial administration after she was alerted to rampant graft in IDP camps.

Meanwhile, a District Commissioner has been charged with stealing 8.75 million shillings earmarked for IDPs and distributing money to people who were not displaced, and according to the East African, corrupt officials working for the Rift Valley land adjudication and resettlement office have auctioned land bought by the government to resettle IDPs. Some 3,000 internally displaced families at the Gicheha camp are still waiting for the government to allocate them land.

In early 2008, an estimated 650,000 Kenyans were displaced and a further 1,300 lost their lives during two months of intense communal violence after the announcement of presidential and parliamentary election results. The incumbent, Mwai Kibaki, leader of the Party of National Unity (PNU), was declared to have defeated Raila Odinga, head of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) in the presidential contest, despite the fact the PNU won fewer parliamentary seats. Both local and international observers questioned the results.

Some families displaced by post-election violence have not returned home, whilst those that have are concerned about safety and insecurity. State officials have been accused of mismanaging and embezzling funds intended for the resettlement of those displaced by post election violence. Meanwhile, the situation of people displaced by earlier violence in various areas has not been adequately addressed, and in 2009 violence over access to natural resources, often involving government security forces, resulted in further displacement. (...)

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^{10 June 2010}