Updates on Situation in Naivasha

Things were quiet in the two IDP camps in Naivasha today. In the Stadium camp the leaders went to Nakuru to speak about the situation with some government officials. No lorries were present to transport people away from the camp and nobody came to pay any of the IDP their restitution money. Water was once again available and people were taking advantage of that and stocking up.

Even the young children
help with carrying water

As for the IDP at the Kedong Camp, some have left. For those who remain they have tried to set up some plastic sheets to protect themselves from the elements. They no longer have any tents which they can use as these were taken by the police. No government official or police officer came by today but there has been a rumour that someone at the UN may be sitting up and taking notice of the travesty of what has happened with those at the Kedong Camp. One can only pray that this is the case!

Meanwhile the work progresses at the training centre. We were pouring concrete today. This time we were putting the floor slab onto the top story. The job was much more labour intensive than the way it would be done in the West. Cement had to be shoveled up one grade, then another, then a third, and finally a fourth before it could then be shoveled into the wheelbarrows. Half of the work was completed today. Tomorrow we hope to finish the rest.

Getting the cement to the top floor,
one step at a time

The work has gone well and so far we have not had the threats of strike or other related issues like we faced last time. Today we were more stringent in our hiring practices and tried to avoid getting any trouble makers. When you hear all the horror stories about how the work gangs in Naivasha try to force the employer to pay them more, it is frightening.

Joram preparing mandazis for our IDP students

This morning we had over 200 people at the gate looking for work. We hired 55 including a fair number of IDP. They were so grateful for the opportunity to work. You wish you could help more, but even with 55 people, that will drain our resources! Cement prices have also risen steeply since the last time we did concrete work a couple of months ago. The tax on imported cement was either reduced or lowered in the last government budget. But that hasn't brought the cost down at all. Instead, the price continues to climb.

Harassed by Police to Leave – Again

We made another trip to the Kedong IDP camp today to see what we could do to help those still stranded there. The numbers are slowly dwindling as people are giving up hope of ever seeing the money that is due them to enable them to start their lives afresh. The conditions too must be so difficult for many to bear. There has not been any rain since Sunday so the nights are not as cold. But without any form of protection available from the elements, surely that cannot be easy to endure for much longer!

Waiting patiently for a small gift of clothing

We heard more disturbing news that the police had returned to try and convince the remaining people to leave. Initially they came last night at 2100 and told the IDP that they were to go to the DO’s office. Everybody refused to leave.

Today the police returned at around 0800 in the morning. This time, when the IDP refused to go with them, the police tore down the make-shift shelters people had set up and confiscated all of the tents along with some other personal possessions. Now they have nothing to protect them from the cold by night or the heat of the sun by day. Many people just have pieces of cardboard on the ground between them and the dusty earth.

How much longer can people be expected to withstand such conditions? And will they ever see any of those possessions again which were taken by the police? It’s no wonder that many are now talking of moving on. They have tried to get what is theirs but it looks like they’re fighting a force too strong for them.

We had shared with some of our church members on Sunday what has been happening at the Kedong camp. Some friends wanted to do their part to help and provided us with extra clothing which we could distribute to the IDP. It is so little, and you sometimes wonder whether it is even worth it. Yet many still appreciate the gesture and that then makes it all worthwhile.

While we were handing out clothing everybody suddenly started to yell and jeer at two men passing along the road. It turns out the men were two of the police officers who had come that morning to try and force people to leave. This time they were in plain clothes, not in their police uniform. Did they come to see how many people were still holding out?

The small gift of food we could make
seemed so trivial compared to the need

We also brought some food to give out. Sometimes you feel so powerless! You wish you could do more. What is so little food amongst so many? Or so few clothes for those who lost so much? Yet despite these feeble efforts, people were so appreciative. Maybe part of that is because it shows that they have not been forgotten. I am saddened that none of the local newspapers have picked up the story of what has happened at the Kedong IDP camp. How much longer will these people be willing or able to wait for what is due them before they all resign themselves to the inevitable and disappear?

Refugees Evicted from IDP Camp in Dead of Night

On Friday morning, the 4th of July, 2008 at around 0400 the police suddenly stormed the Kedong Refugee camp and forcibly removed the remaining internally displaced people. Six months earlier the same people had been chased out of their former residences in Naivasha often by neighbours and acquaintances when violence exploded in and around the town. This time it was the police doing the evicting.

The tents were torn down, often with the inhabitants still inside. Meagre possessions which had been saved in the first wave of violence were now tossed about as the police pushed the people to leave the Kedong IDP camp. In one tent a one year old boy was trampled, his screams mixed with the cries of fear and anger coming from other parts of the encampment.

The refugee camp at Kedong in Naivasha was set up primarily by some local flower farms for their employees. However, though many of the residents were local farm employees, a fair number were also unemployed, some having lost their businesses when violence rocked the town of Naivasha early this year.

The government had insisted the camp should be closed by the 29th of June. To facilitate the transition the government promised each of the displaced Ksh 10,000 (about $160 US). For the most part the payment of this money ran smoothly. But by the end of last week, despite the passing of the deadline and the departure of the Red Cross, there were still some who were waiting to be paid.

On Thursday evening the government officials paid half of the remaining people, promising to return the following day to pay the rest. But early the following morning, while it was still dark, the police arrived and evicted those still left in the camp.

Children are amongst the evicted now

living outside Kedong camp

When the police stormed the camp, some of the residents were at work. They arrived the following morning to find their tents gone and most of their possessions looted.

Two sick people still in the camp were taken, along with their meagre possessions, and were left outside of the police station in Naivasha, their fate to be determined at some later date.

The police action in the Kedong camp raised the anxiety level of those in the other IDP camp in Naivasha. The government has assured refugees that their resettlement is voluntary. But those in the Naivasha Stadium now fear that they too may have the police come to evict them against their will, and perhaps even violently.

The remainder of the people from the Kedong camp have now set up forms of shelter outside the abandoned settlement. Inside the neighbouring wire enclosure the watch towers, toilets and water tanks are all that are left of the former IDP camp. But the refugees have been prohibited from entering the area where sheep now graze on what was their temporary home just a few days ago. Now they must live off of the goodwill of well wishers while they wait for the government to recognise their plight.

Internally Displaced Forgotten by All

Shocking too is how this incident has been ignored by the media. The government officials chose to send in the police under cover of darkness, with no Red Cross official or no journalist present to witness the event. Since then the refugees who have lost so much continue to wait for someone to sit up and take notice of their plight.