Dilapidated building where the IDPs have been camping for the last 7 months

It is not business as usual for 30 families of Internally Displaced Persons camping at Ruring’u stadium in Nyeri South district.

Faces of anguish, tears and despair is what greets you when you approach the IDPs who are in the stadium seven months later after being uprooted from their homes in parts of Rift Valley and Western Provinces.

“What have brought us today? We are dying here because of hunger, cold and diseases. What did we do to deserve this? Look how my ten children are suffering here despite camping at the district where the President hails from?” cried Faith Njeri while peeling pumpkins for her family’s meal.

Njeri is one among the many women from Burnt Forest, Kisumu, Molo, Kapsabet and Nakuru whose families are living in the old, dilapidated and abandoned houses, built over 30 years ago and which were being used as display stands for various companies within the Agricultural Society of Kenya in the stadium.

The women have now resorted to begging since they cannot afford enough capital to start their own businesses. Their efforts to get casual jobs in the area have also hit a snag since there are no small industries and farmers have small farms just to meet their subsistence needs. Those who have attempted to rent houses outside the stadium had to be evicted for lack rent.

”How will I bring up these six children you see here? My husband was killed on the eve of the New Year as a result of the post election chaos and now I have nobody to turn to. I have tried all means at hand to survive but without money one cannot go far,” decried Lucy Wairimu from Eldoret while refusing her two-year-old son from feeding on dry Githeri warning that it was unhealthy though there was nothing else to feed on.

Wairimu has undergone many tribulations and most of the nights she spends out in the cold taking her children to hospital due to cold- related diseases.

Rats, lice, fleas, bedbugs and other parasites have become common place for the IDPs and children spend most of their time removing and scratching them off from their bodies as they have become a nuisance. When it rains, water pours in the rooms since the iron sheets are torn and they end up having to sleep on soaked mattresses.

It is ordinary here, to find a one- roomed house being shared by over three families and privacy is lacking since both the very old and very young share the same room.

The new homes, they say are not secure. Foot steps can be heard late in the night around the homes and the already distressed IDPs are now fearful for their lives.

Donations from Kenya Red Cross Society have not been forthcoming for the last two months.

“We are not used to this life of begging, if we can be given funds, we can start our own businesses here and settle here, we don’t need to go back if we can start our lives here. I want to settle here. I want to bring up my ten children here in this region of Nyeri district.” said the 60-year-old Njeri from Soi in Eldoret.

Njeri remembers painfully how she and her husband Samuel Kiiru and their 10 children returned to Eldoret three months ago but even before they had spent a night a group of youths arrived screaming that they want their heads. It was by the mercy of God that they escaped to the bush and spent the night there before returning to Nyeri early the following morning.

They have since vowed that they will not return to the area and all they need is compensation.

100-year-old Martha Wanjiru who was uprooted from her Kapsabet home during the post poll violence said she only needs compensation to start her business in Nyeri since she lost everything to arsonists and want a new beginning.

“We are tired of the empty promises by the Government. We need compensation like our colleagues in the Nakuru camps. It seems the Government has forgotten us and is only now concentrating on day to day politics.” said Wanjiru.

A month ago, Central Provincial Commissioner Japheth Rugut flagged off about 25 families who returned to areas of Rift Valley, Western and Coast region, however some people like John Kinyanjui returned after spending a few days at Soi shopping centre in Eldoret. He said he run out of money and all his properties were burnt and so had nowhere to start.

“We were abandoned away from home without being given any money and it was hard to survive. I borrowed bus fare to get back me here. Even though there was peace, I didn’t know where to start because I had nowhere to stay. Even my trees for timber were stolen so I cannot build a new house. We are refugees in our own country.” He lamented.

The women say that they have been inquiring about their safety to return to their homes but reports still indicate that the area is still volatile. News that there were fresh attacks in Njoro area in Nakuru district recently has instigated new fears among them.

The Red Cross Nyeri branch chairman David Mwangi has since refused to comment on the issue of donations. The Government has however accommodated their children into the neighboring primary schools where they are continuing with learning.

The chairman of the IDPs in the stadium James Mahinda has appealed to the Government to give them funds to start businesses without the harassment of the local authority.