FAILURE OF COALITION GOVERNMENT TO RESETTLE IDPS IS A REFLECTION OF STRUCTURAL FAILURE OF THE FRAGILE REGIME AND ITS LEADERS

During the post election violence following the rigging of presidential election in Kenya, over 300,000 IDPs were created. After the signing of the “National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008, one key agreement was the resettlement of IDPs by the new coalition government. The understanding was that the plight of IDPs would be given priority by the new government as the process of reconciliation also began.

We are now in the middle of November and IDPs have not yet been resettled. The situation is so serious that IDPs themselves have taken matters into their own hands by trying to organize protest actions to get their plight on the national limelight.

When they camped at Parliament buildings last week to seek attention from politicians, a group of IDPs including women, were tear gassed by police sent by the Coalition government to disperse the IDPs. According to a Report released by the Kenya Human Rights Commission, “Operation Rudi Nyumbani” that was started by the government to resettle the IDPs has officially flopped.

Kerusoi is one of the worst affected farms where a crisis of sorts has been under development at Ndeffo, Mwahe and Chemanel regions. Those who were displaced in Molo, Subukia, Burnt Forest and Marakwet are yet to return to their homes more than eight months after the post election violence came to an end. A key problem why the IDPs are still unable to return to their homes is insecurity with many IDPs saying that those who chased them away from their homes are still armed and can still attack them.

Secondly, the government has failed to come up with a blue print on how the long standing differences between the different ethnic communities can be addressed. At the core of the problem is the question of land which three regimes have failed to address since the days of independence in 1963.

The View of Mapambano online is that the question of land distribution, landlessness and land grabbing by the rich in Kenya will have to be part of the solution to the IDP problem.

The government is in a fix because some politicians holding top positions in government like President Mwai Kibaki and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta are themselves custodians of huge tracts of land acquired through family and political connections.

Another issue is that the white settler community in Kenya also owns vast pieces of land in Rift Valley and if the problem of land in Kenya is to be tackled effectively, the big land grabbers will have to be part of the solution.

That aside, the failure of the Coalition government to resettle the IDPs is also a reflection of the general weakness of the Coalition government whose top politicians appear to be more interested in looting the economy and plundering the country’s wealth than addressing the plight of the IDPs.

It is the view of Mapambano online that politicians in the Grand coalition be made to account for the government’s failure to resettle the IDPs. This failure is a warning that the government which came to power after the post election violence is incapable of leading and transforming the lives of Kenyans to the better.

Kenyans need to begin a process of re-organizing politically because it is increasingly becoming evident that those in government are not interested in transforming the lives of millions of poor Kenyans. If the issue of IDPs cannot be addressed, how will the issue of homelessness or degrading living conditions in slums across the country be addressed? It is the view of Mapambano online that in less than one year after it came to power, the Coalition government might have outlived its usefulness.

Mapambano Editorial Board