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Fear and hope as victims are moved

Story by NATION Team
Fear and hope in equal measure marked the start of the resettlement of internal refugees in Rift Valley.

At Molo DC�s offices Monday, scores of people boarded military trucks for the trip back to their homes.

Mzee Ibrahim Githatwa, 76, stood motionless under an old dombea tree as assistant chief Simon Ruai read out names of� the refugees.

�I am from Keringet in Kuresoi. I have lived there since the (1942) famine of the yams but we had to leave when our houses were burnt in January,� he said with a faltering voice.

Lost houses

Mzee Githatwa, a widower and a father of 13 children, all adults, said he lost seven houses in the 1992 ethnic violence. He, together with some of his children, went back to Keringet and built five houses. The houses were, however, burnt down in January.

�Four of my children are here and we are ready to go back. We have nowhere else to go. Life has not been easy here. I want to go back to my two acres,� said the old man.

Mrs Naomi Njeri� Waweru said she was� willing to go back to her four-acre piece of land at Kiambogo Farm in Molo. Her husband, a retired education officer, was killed during the January violence.

She said she was now destitute. Her son, who was a third-year student at Sigalagala Technical Institute in Western Province, was hit by an arrow in the ear� and has been receiving medical attention ever since. �I am willing to join others who are returning to Kiambogo, but I don�t know how we shall start life all over again with these problems and uncertainty,� she said.

Mrs Mary Nyokabi was returning to her half-acre plot, where she had lived with her 13 children since 1992 when they were evicted from Kericho.

Join the rest

She embraced the Rudi Nyumbani Operation as she did not have any other home. �If I had an alternative, that would be a different matter, but as things stand, I have to join the rest.�

Mr Dickson Mweresa said he bought two acres at Langweda Farm in Molo in 2006 but his houses were burnt down in January, leaving him and his family of four children destitute.

�This camp was a desolate place for a family. We want to go back to our farms and start life afresh,� Mr Mweresa said.

Mr Samuel Ayieny of� Muteme Farm� said he and his family fled to Molo after the three houses he had built on his five-acre piece of land were torched.

�I saw my neighbour killed during the attack, but we are determined to go back and see what the future holds for us,� he said.

The Molo district commissioner, Mr Katee Mwanza,�said that initial arrangements had been�made to ferry people to only four farms Monday.

The number was later increased to 13 farms after more people expressed willingness to return home.

Eager to return

At the show ground camp in Eldoret, Peter Mbugua said he was eager to return. ��Though the maize planting season is over, we can take advantage of the rainy season by growing horticultural crops,� an upbeat Mbugua says.

Despite being assured by local MPs and the Government of co-operation and adequate security once they return home, some� are adamant about not returning.

They say unless their neighbours commit themselves to live with them, they will not go back as yet.

�My neighbour shot at me but I was lucky to escape it (arrow). He proceeded to burn down my house and took away my livestock.

�How will I live together with him in peace when he is milking my cows while I buy milk from him? It is simply not possible,� declared Mzee William Njuguna.

On Sunday, Agriculture minister William Ruto led eight other lawmakers in an interdenominational prayer service at the show ground as a way of preparing the smooth resettlement of the refugees.

The use of security personnel, without addressing the root causes of the recurrent clashes in the province, has been criticised by the region�s leaders and residents.

Calls for the release of those arrested on suspicion inciting the chaos have been given as a condition for genuine reconciliation and resettlement.

Some, who are reluctant to return, have adopted a wait-and-see attitude, fearing for their safety.

They are also unhappy due to lack of compensation from the Government. They would be glad to go back after those who are resettled first face no resistance from the local community.

�We have not interacted with our former neighbours, and I don�t know how they will react to our return. They have demanded that we dialogue together, but this has not happened.

�Given what I saw and went through, I will not be the first to go back,� Ms Grace Wamaitha said.

A firm assurance of security is the only thing that prevents a hesitant Peter Njoroge from looking forward to his resettlement.

�They (provincial administrators) have promised adequate security, but I am concerned that they might ferry us to the farms and abandon us.

�Will they afford my family an all-round security, even when going to the market?� Mr Njoroge asked.

Reports by Michael Njuguna, Sammy Cheboi and Simon Siele

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It is being reported that the IDPs are being send home from the camps. The camps were congested and they were suffering from lack of food and proper shelter. Now they are being moved and yet no one can fully guarantee their safety when they get back. The same neighbours who dislodged and killed some of them are still there and they can turn against them once again. People are full of anxiety.

We reported earlier that the Lands minister James Orengo from ODM party would like to see land disputes sorted out and Kikuyu IDPs from Rift Valley to be resettled in other regions. His remarks has sparked outcry in the country forcing som MPs to castigate him terming his utterances as careless and dangerous. API

Thousands go home

Story by NATION Team

Nearly 10,000 victims of the post-election violence were resettled in their homes as the process of ending the nightmare that started with December�s disputed presidential election got underway.�

Internal refugees at Noigam camp in Cherangany, Trans Nzoia East District, wait to board army lorries to their homes at Geta farm in the district.

Six thousand were resettled in Molo, while 3,855 were taken back to their homes in Trans Nzoia District.

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Some of the families returning home expressed fears over insecurity even as the refugees were ferried back home in military and National Youth Service trucks and private buses.

The Government has built police posts on some of the farms where the uprooted people were returning.

As the resettlement kicked off, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees transferred 1,600 Kenyans from� eastern to western Uganda. The agency said that another 200 who had volunteered to return to Kenya will be brought back on Friday.

And at the Nakuru Show Ground, where an estimated 14,000 have been camping, the internally displaced� people staged a protest complaining that they had been excluded from the recent visit by President Kibaki and the Prime Minister, Mr Raila Odinga.

More than 1,200 people died and 350,000 were displaced in the violence that ended on February 28 with the signing of a power-sharing agreement between President Kibaki and Mr Odinga.

Rift Valley provincial commissioner Noor Hassan Noor launched repatriation of 3,855 internal refugees in Trans Nzoia East District after witnessing a similar exercise of more than 6,000 victims in Molo. The PC, who was with Special Programmes permanent secretary Ali Mohammed and the chairman to the humanitarian and resettlement trust fund committee, retired Archbishop Ndingi Mwana a�Nzeki, addressed the refugees at Noigam where he called for reconciliation.

The administrator also kicked off rebuilding of houses destroyed during the violence at Geta Farm and distributed building materials to the victims.

Timber and nails

It included 25,000 pieces of iron sheet, tonnes of timber and nails.

He said the Government will beef up security and offer financial assistance to the victims to enable them buy household items damaged in the mayhem.

�Security personnel including regular and Administration policemen and the General Service Unit personnel have been posted to affected areas to ensure that law and order is maintained,� the PC said.

Six posts have been set up in various farms in Trans Nzoia East District.

But some uprooted people said their former neighbours were unwilling to accept them back.

�There has been cold reception from our former neighbours. We are uncertain about our security in the farms despite the deployment of more security officers,� Mr Bernard Omandi, 48, said.

Raised concern

Some of the victims raised concern that the Government had rushed the settlement before reconciliation.

�We have no otherwise but to vacate the camps since it is a government directive and some of our colleagues have already started going back,� said Ms Christine Moraa who was displaced from Matierio in Geta farm.

Most of those interviewed asked the Government to give them relief food and building materials.

�We have to start from scratch since we lost almost all our property during the clashes,�� said Ms Moraa.

At Kitale show ground, 5,589 refugees said they would not go back to their former land unless the Government conducts a security operation in Kwanza and Saboti constituencies to seize illegal firearms. They said that they had evidence that those who evicted them from their farms were in possession�of firearms and vowed never to return.

Speaking to the Nation, their chairman, Mr John Shikuku, said going back to their farms before disarmament would expose them to great danger.

They criticised the Government for building a police post at Matisi area instead of Kalaha where the affected people had fled to.

They said Matisi Police Station was too close to Kitale Town.

�Why should we have a police post at Matisi, which is hardly three kilometres from Kitale Police Station and have none in Kalaha about 25 kilometres away where people were affected?� Mrs Nancy Wechuli posed. A survey by the Nation showed that none of the refugees at the camp were willing to leave for their farms.

There was no activity at Ruring�u Stadium in Nyeri,� which hosts a number of refugees.

Their spokesman, Mr Samuel Mugoy, said they will not return to their homes and asked the Government to give them alternative land.

Reported by Michael Njuguna, Patrick Nzioka and Barnabas Bii

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Tears because they are not sure of what will happen when they are abruptly ordered out of the camps. These are mostly Kikuyus in the Rift Valley who own large pieces of land and businesses. Now that the ministry of Lands is under a Luo minister, things are changing in Kenya. There will be more tears to see in the weeks to come.

Ruto, the agriculture minister has said that the IDPs should not be taken back to their original homes because having security and police stations will not provide a lasting solution. He knows that the people fear for tehir lives and when he says the security forces is no solution, the IDPs are filled with anxiety�because the security forces may abandon them some day and they will be burned and butched as witnessed in William Ruto’s area when people – form the Kikuyu community – were burned to death. API

Uprooted and scattered by the bloodletting triggered by the disputed December 27 presidential elections, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga are keenly aware that a botched resettlement plan for the IDPs could have far reaching political implications.

Dubbed, “Operation Rudi Nyumbani”, the resettlement has been made possible by leaders of PNU and ODM � the two combatants at the elections that plunged the country into unprecedented chaos.

In Molo, one of the epicentres of post-election violence, the Rift Valley PC, Mr Hassan Noor Hassan, supervised the exercise.

Seven Kenya Army trucks and two buses were used in the massive translocation never witnessed before in the country.

The more than 10,000 IDPs who had been camping in Molo will be resettled in 13 farms in the region.

They are Sirikwa, Kiambogo, Githirika, Muthenji, Nyota, Kangawa and Lagwenda.

Other farms are Sasumua, Willa, Muchorwe, Karirikania, Kadonye and Nyaruai.

Yesterday, the PC launched the resettlement exercise that will see thousands of IDPs return to their farms. The launch at the Molo District headquarters was, however, received with mixed feelings.

Some IDPs still preferred to remain in the camps, fearing for their lives, even as the PC reassured them on security.

But an upbeat Ms Rose Nyambura Thuo said: “It is the happiest moment of my life because I am going back to my farm though we are parting with friends I had gotten used to during the difficult times.”

In a gesture that enmity by two communities living in the area had been buried, eight leaders from the Kalenjin community visited the camp and assured the victims that all was well.

“We welcome you back to your farms and we ask for forgiveness on behalf of our people,” said Councillor Joshua Sigilai of Nyota Ward.

In Trans Nzoia and Marakwet districts, up to 3,000 IDPs started their journey back home with mixed feelings. Tents at the Kachibora camp were pulled down as displaced people boarded military trucks to return home.

They included Ms Eunice Gesara, a mother of four, who said she did not know what to expect on her first day home after four months at the camp.

“To be honest, I�m apprehensive about this trip. It is like going back to meet my tormentors,” she told The Standard outside the camp.

But Mr Justus Masi, a village elder in Kiboiye, Cheragany, expressed optimism that the resettlement plan would succeed as it had the blessings of elders in the host community.

He said: “They came to the camp (in Kachibora) and sought forgiveness on behalf of their community. We hope that it was genuine and we will live in harmony.”

Mr Abednego Atuya and his brother, Mr Jared Mecha, who earlier lived in Marakwet District, said everyone was told that they had to go home as the camp would be closed.

But on Monday, the sheer scale of the exercise appeared to send the message that the Government would not countenance failure.

Water, Health, Energy and Education ministries have already deployed staff and materials for the resettlement of IDPs in Molo and Trans Nzoia districts.

Internal Security PS, Mr Francis Kimemia, said the efforts would be coordinated by the Special Programmes and Internal Security ministries.

Personnel from the four ministries will re-construct basic education and health infrastructure destroyed in the violence, the Government said.

In a statement to newsrooms, the PS said the two ministries would coordinate logistics and provide security. The statement added that the military had also been deployed to rebuild schools, hospitals and other amenities gutted or destroyed in the carnage that erupted when the ECK controversially declared President Kibaki winner.

After Molo and Trans Nzoia, the Government will move IDPs integrated or living in Central, Nyanza, Eastern and Western provinces back to the Rift Valley.

Eleven guidelines to direct the resettlement which include registration of genuine IDPs, identification and prioritisation of farms where IDPs will be resettled, listing of destroyed infrastructure, deployment of security personnel, water boozers and movement of IDPs returning to their homes voluntarily have already been published.

They also include reconciliation and enhancement of security in volatile areas. Genuine IDPs will be issued with support kits in their homes or farms, reconstruction of schools, hospitals and other essential services.

The resettlement programme, which began with the Rift Valley peace tours by President Kibaki and Raila, were not entirely incident free. The Head of State, Vice-President, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, and Internal Security minister, Prof George Saitoti, were booed in Eldoret during the tour.

“Sina haja ya kukasirishwa na mtu ambaye hajui anachosema (I will not be angered by those who don�t understand what they are saying,” the President, who restrained himself after a section of the crowd in Eldoret walked out on him, said.

On his part, Raila said some politicians had warned him not to go to the Rift Valley allegedly because the atmosphere was not yet conducive.

“But I decided that we should start efforts to reconcile communities so that displaced persons can be resettled,” he said.

In Nairobi, US Ambassador, Mr Michael Rannerberger, said his government would support IDPs who voluntarily returned to their homes.

“People cannot be forced to resettle. The process has to be voluntary and there is urgent need for provisions that will create restoration of their livelihoods,” Rannerberger, who was addressing journalists at the US Embassy, said.

On Monday, four central Kenya MPs, among them a Cabinet minister, condemned the Lands minister over his call that IDPs uprooted from Rift Valley be resettled in other provinces.

The legislators, who included Gender and Children�s minister, Ms Esther Murugi, termed Orengo�s sentiments careless and senseless.

Murugi, who is also the Nyeri Town MP, led legislators Mr Jeremiah Kioni (Ndaregwa), Mr Lenny Kivuti (Siakago) and FT Nyammo (Tetu) in criticising Orengo�s remarks, saying the displaced persons had “every right” to be returned to where they had been evicted.

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The Tanzanian president has been forced to step in and save the situation. He now wants a crackdown by the government. In some regions, it has been reported that some people have even gone as far as killing their own children for witchcraft purposes. Albino persons are the one being tacketed and�captured, killed and body parts uprooted and sold. API

Deadly harvest of body parts

Story by Khadija Yusuf

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Though in Kenya too there have been rumours of traditional healers who use human body parts in rituals, it is nothing compared to recent revelations of widespread use of body organs from albinos in Tanzania.

According to reports, the sexual organs of male and female albinos are particularly sought because it is believed they can effect miracle cures or offer mystical powers.

Witch doctors and devil worshippers believe that the organs of these people are a potent remedy when mixed with certain concoctions.

TOOLS OF A GRUESOME TRADE: In Tanzania, the body organs of albinos are being sought for witchcraft and devil worship rituals.���

The notion that human body parts can be used to heal or bestow special powers has caused panic among the albino community in Tanzania.

The problem has reached such proportions that Tanzania�s President, Jakaya Kikwete, used his monthly television address to announce a crackdown on the traditional healers as well as plans to register albinos to improve their safety. “These killings are shameful and distressing to our society,” said Mr Kikwete in his Wednesday night speech to the nation. “I am told that people kill albinos and chop their body parts, including fingers, believing they can get rich.”

Videos and films from Nigeria that tout the efficacy of witchcraft are widely to blame for the current crisis in Tanzania.

The phenomenon recently took on an East African dimension when Tanzanian police arrested two Kenyans in the Mara region of Tanzania for allegedly killing an albino woman.

The two men who are said to be from western Kenya are now in police custody in Tanzania.

Reports in Tanzanian media say the incident so incensed the Mara Provincial Commissioner, Luteni Kanali Issa that he revoked licences for foreign traditional healers and ghost busters from Kenya, Uganda and the DRC Congo.

“The influx of these traditional healers has contributed to mass deaths of albinos and soon they will be wiped out,” said Issa. “We will not allow any one to violate their fundamental rights.”

The administrator says the woman was killed at her house at Sarari in Tarime District on March 3 while another was killed at Kijiji cha Bwai Kwitururu, popularly known as �Paris� among the locals.

It later emerged that the Kenyan men had been sent by a traditional healer to collect body parts of an albino, which he claimed would make them fabulously wealthy.

Reports from Tanzania say unknown people have been stalking two albino pupils at Mtibwa Primary School in Turiani, Morogoro.

It is said the strangers have been making indiscreet enquiries about the two siblings.

Many albinos � some estimates put the number at over 50 � have been killed in various parts of Tanzania in recent months for get-rich rituals.

In the past albinos were regarded as a bad omen in Tanzania. Now they have become endangered as traditional healers lead people to believe that their body parts can be used to bring good fortune and sudden riches.

A number of incidents have been reported of albinos being killed in horrific circumstances and cases of exhumation of their corpses to retrieve body parts.

Recently a newspaper in Tanzania reported a number of atrocities ranging from a school pupil in Geita District whose hand was chopped off, to unidentified people who exhumed the body of an albino from a freshly dug grave and disappeared with it in Ukerewe District.

Last December, a teacher in Arusha was arrested for killing his own child, an albino with for unstated reasons.

In 2001, the Mbeya area experienced a wave of similar attacks in which a total of six people were believed to have been abducted and killed and their skins allegedly routed through Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo before reaching their final destination in West Africa.

At the time it was claimed that prices for the human skins ranged from Sh168,000 to Sh672,000, depending on the age of the victim.

Incidentally a gruesome exhibition of the human skins in question was shown during one of the annual trade fairs along Kilwa road as part of the official campaign to raise awareness about the underground human trade.

During the qualifying preliminaries for the 2006 World Cup, it is claimed that hippos, lions, elephants and hyenas were slaughtered to make a potion for the Swaziland soccer team to give its footballers extra strength.

Ritual murder involves the killing of someone in order to remove body parts for incorporation as ingredients in medicine or concoctions used in witchcraft.

It is said that practitioners of the dark arts are particularly keen on certain parts.

For example human skulls are placed on the foundations of new buildings to bring good luck to a business. Other body parts are buried on farms to secure big harvests, while hands are built into shop entrances to encourage customers. Hands are also burnt to ashes and mixed into a paste and supposedly used as a cure for stroke.

Human blood is believed to boost vitality while brains deliver political power and business success. Genitals, breasts and placentas are used for infertility and good luck, with the genitalia of young boys and virgin girls being especially prized as uncontaminated� and therefore highly potent.

It is said that in South Africa, the organs of white men fetch more since whites are perceived as more successful in business. There is a belief that body parts taken from live victims are rendered more potent by their screams, according to a report by the South African Police Service Research Centre.

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The government says�4,000 have been killed and aid groups say the toll is likely to climb [AFP]

The Myanmar government has said that the cyclone that struck the south-east Asian nation this weekend has killed�10,000 people.

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Nyan Win, the foreign minister, told state television: “According to the latest information, more than 10,000 people were killed.”

Nyan Win added that the country would be willing to accept international aid to assist with the disaster, which has left thousands without shelter and water.

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Thailand, Myanmar’s neighbour,�has offered to send emergency food and medicine.

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Norway has also promised �1.3m ($1.96m), channelled through the UN or Red Cross rather than the government, for the disaster.

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UN ‘to enter’

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The UN said on Monday that the government had accepted its offer to help, with shipments of aid being prepared immediately.

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Al Jazeera’s John Terrett at the UN headquarters�in New York said that the United Nations Disaster, Assessment and Co-ordination team, which is based in Thailand, has been put on alert since Saturday to enter Myanmar to offer assistance to the government there.

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He added that this team was expected to enter Myanmar at about 16:30GMT on Monday.

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Hundreds of thousands of people are homeless and without clean drinking water, a UN official has said and aid agencies have called on Myanmar’s military government to allow free movement so help can be given to victims of the storm.

UN disaster experts said it could be days before the extent of the damage is known because of the government’s tight control of communications.

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Call for access

The UN office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said that the government – which has indicated it will press ahead with a referendum on a new constitution on Saturday – was “having as much trouble as anyone else in getting a full overview” of the destruction.

“Roads are not accessible and many small villages were hit and will take time to reach,” Terje Skavdal, the regional head of UNOCHA, said.

Teams of foreign aid workers were trying to assess the damage and aid needs, but their access and movements are restricted by the military.

“That is the existing situation for international staff. The way most agencies work is they use national staff who have more freedom to move,” Skavdal said.

“We will have a dialogue with the government to try to get access to the people affected,” he added.

Aid groups’ plea

The Forum for Democracy in Burma and other dissident groups outside of
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma,�have also�urged the military government to allow aid groups unfettered access to the country.

“International expertise in dealing with natural disasters is urgently required,” said Naing Aung, secretary-general of the Thailand-based group.

“The military regime is ill-prepared to deal with the aftermath of the cyclone.”

The government has declared the former capital of Yangon a disaster area

The government has declared the former capital of Yangon a disaster area after the storm’s 190kph winds blew roofs off hospitals and cut off electricity supply.

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Yangon, the Irrawaddy Delta, Bago as well as the Karen and Mon states were heavily damaged and have been declared disaster areas.

State-controlled television reported that 20,000 homes had been destroyed on Haingyi, an island in the Andaman sea.

A further 90,000 people on the island, the first part of the country to be hit by the cyclone, were�left homeless, the government said.

‘Flattened’�

Chris Kaye, the UN’s acting humanitarian co-ordinator in Yangon, confirmed that “the Irrawaddy delta was hit extremely hard not only because of the wind and rain but because of the storm surge”.

“The villages there have reportedly been completely flattened.”

�The storm blew roofs off hospitals and cut off electricity supply [AFP]

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Myanmar said residents living in slums on the outskirts of Yangon have been among the hardest hit as many struggle to repair their homes before the next rainy season downpour.

The owner of a house which lost its roof in the cyclone said he was not expecting assistance from local authorities as he struggles to feed a family of six after recently losing his factory job.

“No one has come to help us. Tomorrow I will have to look for another job because I need money to repair my house,” he said.

It is unknown to what extent�the destruction caused by the cyclone will affect the holding of a referendum on May 10,�on�a new charter backed by the ruling generals.

But the government indicated that it would proceed as planned.

“It’s only a few days left before the coming referendum and people are eager to cast their vote,”�the state-owned newspaper Myanma Ahlin said on Monday.

The military�says the vote�is�the first�stage in a seven-step “road map to democracy”, intended�to culminate in multi-party elections in 2010.

The process has been criticised by opposition groups which say the process is intended only to tighten the military’s grip on power.

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The Arab league decided Sunday to send a fact-finding mission to the disputed border area between Djibouti and Eritrea to evaluate the situation and prepare a report to the league, the under-secretary of the Arab league for political affairs, Ambassador Ahamed ben Hely, told the press.

The under-secretary of the Arab league for political affairs, Ambassador Ahamed ben Hely, said Sunday that �the Arab Peace and Security Council approved Djibouti�s request to send the mission in an effort to solve the crisis between the two countries.�

According to him, the Council discussed the border problem between Djibouti and Eritrea in its first ever meeting Sunday at delegates level.

Ben Hely revealed that he will meet the ambassadors of the two countries to explore ways to defuse tensions and prevent more escalations.

�The Council called Djibouti and Eritrea to exercise restraint in dealing with the border issue and seek to solve it through peaceful means,� he pointed out.

The Arab Peace and Security Council stressed �the need to respect the principles of good neighbourliness between the two countries, not to make any changes in the existing borders since independence, respect unity and territorial integrity of their territories and deepening Arab-African cooperation.�

The Council also requested the Secretary-General of the Arab League Amro Mussa to contact the concerned parties, the Chairperson of the AU Commission and the African Peace and Security Council in a bid to secure an Arab-African joint action to address the crisis.

Djibouti indicated, on the sidelines of the meeting, that it sought regional and international efforts after the failure of bilateral dialogue

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