Many displaced are on the move again in Kenya, says UN
With the security situation easing after a wave of violence tore through Kenya following last December’s contested elections, the United Nations reported that large numbers of displaced are returning to their “ancestral homes,” potentially straining resources in the nation’s western region.
The movement of internally displaced persons (IDPs) is mainly occurring from central to western areas of the country, and its impact is already being felt in Western and Nyanza provinces where educational and health systems are overextended, according to the UN Country Team.
Additionally, the large influx of IDPs could threaten food security, the team noted.
Currently, there are 12,000 people in over two dozen displacement camps in the capital Nairobi, and plans are afoot to create a site to shelter 15,000 IDPs in Kasarani, on the outskirts of the city.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that 47 tons of food have been distributed to 19 displaced settlements in the Kipelion and Nakuru districts, the first such delivery in the South Rift Valley.
Some 1,000 people have lost their lives and more than 310,000 others displaced since the December 2007 elections in which President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner over opposition leader Raila Odinga. In addition, some 12,000 Kenyans have fled to neighbouring Uganda.