Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Kenya fails to resettle citizens after election violence

A report that comes a human rights group says that Kenya is doing a poor job in resettling people who were displaced after violence.

Riots broke out earlier this year after Kenya' election. Over 283,000 people had to flee their homes due to the violence. 80 percent of those people still live in the refugee camps.

However, the government of Kenya says that only 5,000 people remain in camps, and they are being taken care of.

According to the Associated Press' Tom Odula, the background over the current state of Kenya's displaced is a storied one. Our snippet comes from the Oregon Live.

In May, the government began its resettlement program following a power-sharing deal President Mwai Kibaki signed with his then rival, Raila Odinga, to end the violence that claimed more than 1,000 lives. Odinga became prime minister under the deal.

Deep divisions over poverty, land, ethnicity and other issues became exposed during the postelection violence and saw businesses lose up to $1 billion. The tourism sector, a key foreign exchange earner for Kenya, saw reservations plummet within days.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission report said there are allegations of corruption in a compensation program for the displaced people and that the government is trying to force people out of the camps by blocking aid agencies from reaching them.

The human rights group prepared the report after five months of research and monitoring the government program. Other organizations have also said the government has downplayed the number of people in the camps and closed many camps irrespective of whether people are ready to return to their homes.

The government has constantly denied this.

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