‘Promised Land’ turns into nightmare

PHOTO | RACHEL KIBUI Elderly and displaced women ponder their next move at Kwa Muhu farm in Mirangini District after returning from local farms where they do menial jobs. They accuse the government of dumping them on the farm to die.

What you need to know:

  • Lobby groups now want the government to intervene and reverse the suffering of the senior citizens
  • A week ago, Deputy President William Ruto announced that the government would resettle 8,000 IDPs in the next one month

When old people at Mawingu camp for internally displaced persons were given priority in resettlement five years ago, they least expected their lives to change for the worse.

Government officials moved 102 people aged 65 and above from the camp in Nyandarua to Kwa Muhu farm.

The group landed at the “promised land” with high hopes of better life after suffering in torn, leaking tents for months. At the farm, posts were ready for use in erecting new houses — structures the elderly cherished after leading miserable lives in polythene bags.

Unfortunately, this was never to be. Building materials for the senior citizens’ houses are now rotting as they suffer biting cold in tents. Already, 27 of those who were moved here have succumbed to diseases caused by poor hygiene and extremely cold weather.

At the age of 101, Julia Mwangi can barely walk. She spends most of her time sitting outside her tattered tent hoping against hope that the government help will one day come her way.

“I sit here, hoping someone will give me some food, and that some government officials will come and allocate to me a piece of land,” she says gazing into space — a stare of emptiness.

The last time the government distributed food at this camp was three months ago. Even so, they were given maize and beans, which is unsuitable to most of them, as they are toothless.

Julia, who was uprooted from Jogoo farm in Molo, feels it would have been better if the government left her to continue living on her friend’s plot.

“I have become worse than a prisoner, because at least a prisoner is assured of three meals a day from the government,” she says. “I sometime go for three days with no food.”

The woman has a developed a hearing problem since she was moved to this camp yet she has no easy access to medical care. Almost all people at this camp can hardly walk to Kanjuiri, about three kilometres downhill, where the nearest government health centre is located.

At 86, Dorcas Wanjiku is among the youthful and energetic residents of this camp. At least she has some energy to work in farms to eke out a living.

“So long as my stomach demands its dues, do I have a choice but to work?” asks Wanjiku shortly after returning from a local farm where she has been working.

Wanjiku works for a maximum of two days a week at a daily wage of Sh150— money she says is barely enough for her food.
Like Julia, Wanjiku had high hopes of a decent house and a place she would call home for the rest of her life. But she says it seems the government took her to this wilderness to die.

Sickly 78-year-old Kamau Njuguna only hopes that he will not breathe his last before he is allocated land and a house of his own.

He believes the government moved them to the desolate farm to hide them from the eyes of people who were fighting for their welfare.

“They do not want people who would fight for our rights to know we live here under deplorable conditions,” he says.
Njuguna, a former freedom fighter, says he is yet to find peace in a country he calls home.

“I wonder if this generation has any concern for the old people.”

FUNDS FOR ELDERLY

Lobby groups now want the government to intervene and reverse the suffering of the senior citizens.

Internal Displacement Policy and Advocacy Centre programmes manager Keffa Magenyi urges the Jubilee leadership to accord the IDPs a decent life and enable them to benefit from funds for the elderly.

The lobby also wants all the remaining homeless families resettled.

A week ago, Deputy President William Ruto announced that the government would resettle 8,000 IDPs in the next one month.
However, Mr Magenyi believes the correct number of remaining IDPs is five times more than the government estimate.

He says more than 40,000 people are still displaced in various parts of the country.

The activist also dismisses the government promise as “a political move aimed at rewarding Jubilee supporters at the expense of genuine IDPs”.

The government, he says, is supposed to consider IDP Act 2012 before promising any resettlement.

The law demands the establishment of a humanitarian committee to profile all IDPs before resettlement.