Kenya: Speedy reform needed to deal with past injustices and prevent future displacement

Download pdf version
^{31 December 2010}

There have been a number of situations of internal displacement in Kenya over many years; they have varied widely in terms of the number of people affected and the duration of the displacement. People have been displaced by politically-motivated ethnic violence, conflict over natural resources which in some cases followed changes in weather patterns and disasters including drought and floods, government disarmament and counter-insurgency campaigns, and the insecurity which continued after all these events. In 2010, localised violence and operations by security forces led to displacement.

Most of these conflicts have featured long-running land disputes, and national and local leaders have often used these grievances to mobilise people to resort to violence. Meanwhile, recurrent droughts have forced pastoralists to move away from traditional grazing lands, leading to clashes with sedentary communities that have repeatedly caused internal displacement. The resulting loss of livelihoods has inhibited the social and economic development of large areas, and led to chronic vulnerability which has lasted for decades.

The large-scale post-election violence in 2007 and 2008 brought internal displacement in Kenya to the attention of the international community. The declared outcome of the presidential election of 2007 was widely disputed, and the widespread inter-communal violence which broke out led to the displacement of over 650,000 people in 2008. In order to end the violence, Kenya initiated a dialogue and reconciliation process with help from the international community, which led to a power-sharing arrangement and a national accord. The accord provided a plan to deal with immediate humanitarian issues and prevent future violence, including by ending the impunity of perpetrators of violence and human rights abuses and promoting broader accountability of government and institutions.

Most of the people displaced by the violence fled to urban areas and areas where their ethnic group was in the majority. A large number took refuge in camps. In 2008, the government launched Operation Rudi Nyumbani (“return home”), to encourage IDPs to return to their places of origin. Many went back though they did not feel safe there, while a large number moved to transit sites where they often faced worse conditions than in the main camps. However, according to the protection cluster in Kenya, some IDPs were in 2010 still in transit camps and other camps like Pipeline IDP camp in the Rift Valley, which hosted over 1,000 families. Efforts to resettle them had been beset by corruption and at times resistance from the proposed host communities. For example, Maasai politicians resisted the resettlement of Kikuyu IDPs to areas they claimed were their ancestral lands.

The perpetrators of the post-election violence included members of Kenya’s commercial and political elites. Human rights organisations have reported that perpetrators of violence have routinely avoided prosecution. Kenya has yet to repeal the 1972 Indemnity Act, which was enacted to shield members of the security forces from prosecution for human rights violations perpetrated in the 1960s against ethnic Somalis and other nomadic peoples of northern Kenya, which caused massive displacement. However, in December 2010, the International Criminal Court named six Kenyans whom it intended to investigate for organising the violence, including three government ministers.

The government provided some assistance to those internally displaced by the post-election violence, but has done little to assist other groups of IDPs. For example, people displaced as a result of state disarmament programmes, as in Mount Elgon in 2008, have had no access to justice.

In the absence of consistent reporting of displacement, there were no reliable figures available on the number of IDPs in 2010. However, several new displacements resulting from conflict over natural resources and from human rights violations were reported. In May, families were forced to flee their homes in Isiolo, Samburu, Turkana and Marsabit districts as a result of human rights violations committed by government armed forces engaged in a programme to disarm pastoralists. In October, inter-ethnic violence over land led to the displacement of hundreds of people in Garissa District of North Eastern Province. In November and December, army operations to expel Ethiopian rebels of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) from northern border areas reportedly caused the internal displacement of civilians. The OLF caused further displacement by attacking people they believed to be reporting their presence.

A positive development in 2010 was the formulation by the government of a draft national IDP policy. The policy, designed to prevent displacement, ensure assistance to IDPs, and promote durable solutions, was expected to be submitted for ratification by the government in 2011.

14 January 2010: Corruption keeps resettlement funds from IDPs

Kenya’s government faces internal wrangling over the allocation of 1.4 billion shillings ($19 million) to buy land for IDPs. The Standard newspaper has reported that government officials have taken millions of shillings meant for resettling IDPs and then claimed that they had been disbursed to beneficiaries. IDPs were shocked when they were shown documents purporting that they had been paid; more than 500 IDPs at Nakuru Pipeline camp are yet to receive money to help them become self-reliant again.

According to The Daily Nation, the Minister for Special Programmes rejected the audit report compiled by the Office of the President which blamed her ministry for the loss of Sh200 million ($2.7 million), saying that she had in March 2009 asked the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) to investigate corruption involving members of the provincial administration after she was alerted to rampant graft in IDP camps.

Meanwhile, a District Commissioner has been charged with stealing 8.75 million shillings earmarked for IDPs and distributing money to people who were not displaced, and according to the East African, corrupt officials working for the Rift Valley land adjudication and resettlement office have auctioned land bought by the government to resettle IDPs. Some 3,000 internally displaced families at the Gicheha camp are still waiting for the government to allocate them land.

In early 2008, an estimated 650,000 Kenyans were displaced and a further 1,300 lost their lives during two months of intense communal violence after the announcement of presidential and parliamentary election results. The incumbent, Mwai Kibaki, leader of the Party of National Unity (PNU), was declared to have defeated Raila Odinga, head of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) in the presidential contest, despite the fact the PNU won fewer parliamentary seats. Both local and international observers questioned the results.

Some families displaced by post-election violence have not returned home, whilst those that have are concerned about safety and insecurity. State officials have been accused of mismanaging and embezzling funds intended for the resettlement of those displaced by post election violence. Meanwhile, the situation of people displaced by earlier violence in various areas has not been adequately addressed, and in 2009 violence over access to natural resources, often involving government security forces, resulted in further displacement. (...)

Download full Overview (288 kb)
^{10 June 2010}