Close camps, say Rift Valley MPs

• Move affected families back to their farms, urge key leaders

MPs from Rift Valley Province have called for the closure of camps for poll chaos victims in the region.

Led by Agriculture minister William Ruto and his Roads counterpart Franklin Bett, the MPs said all displaced people living in camps should be re-settled on their farms by the government.

They said leaders, including MPs, councillors and administrators from the region, were planning to visit the camps and identify poll chaos victims from their regions.

“We want the camps closed and those identified as genuine IDPs (internally displaced persons) moved back to their homes to lead normal lives in the spirit of reconciliation and reconstruction,” said the Agriculture minister.

Speaking at Kapletundo Primary School in Sotik at the weekend, the ministers allayed fears among the displaced that they could be attacked if they returned to their farms. Mr Ruto said peace had returned to all parts of the country.

Mr Bett said some people in the camps were masquerading as poll chaos victims to cash in on government payments to resettle the families.

“Much as the government wants the displaced to resettle, this may not be achieved as new people claiming to have been affected by the clashes keep flooding the camps when genuine ones have gone to their farms” he said.

Some people were maligning the Kalenjin community, claiming they were not ready to receive and accommodate the IDPs being resettled, when the opposite was true, Mr Bett said.

Elsewhere, more than 400 people from the Kisii community who were uprooted from four divisions in Kericho District now want government assistance.

Their spokesman, Mr Samwel Nyambane, asked the Special Programmes ministry to ensure they received Sh10,000 general compensation, and Sh35,000 for those whose houses were destroyed during the post-election violence.

“Our urgent appeal to the government is for it to provide us with free maize seed and fertilisers in readiness for the coming planting season,” said Mr Nyambane, who urged those still in camps to go back to their farms.