Trans Nzoia: IDPs threaten to take State to ICC over compensation
By David Musundi
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Trans Nzoia County who were forcibly displaced from their homes during the fierce 2007-2008 post-election violence have threatened to seek for redress at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to compel the Government of Kenya to resettle them.
Through their National Secretary Raphael Eyanai, the displaced persons who have been integrated by their relatives have blamed a former District Commissioner in Trans Nzoia for reneging on plans to settle and compensating them.
Speaking to the People Daily in an interview in Kitale Town, Eyanai said out of the more than 600, 921 internally displaced persons, the government only managed to assist about 350,000 families who were living in some 118 camps across the country as 313 others that were displaced remain displaced with the only difference of being integrated among close family members.
He said 83,891 families out of the 331,921 were given Ksh50,000 through the Rudi Nyumbani Program to settle in their homes while the majority remained at market centers awaiting government interventions which to date are not forthcoming.
He appealed to the Office of the President to help cushion the internally displaced persons from harsh conditions since and added that it was wrong for some government officers to continue sitting on funds meant to assist affected families get settled on alternative land.
He said the 12 years of suffering from lack of shelter and biting poverty were enough grounds to warrant a case at the International Criminal Court of Justice, adding that those who had misappropriated funds meant for compensation have since been promoted as the poor IDPs languish in poverty.
