Kenya

 

UPDATE  REPORT FROM AEE KENYA

 

 

 On 21st February, the Government gave 24 hours directive to the IDPs to move out from Jamhuri camp.  This was very abrupt and it was not taken kindly by most of the IDPs who said they had no place to go although they had received an earlier directive in January which they ignored.  They knew that this time round the Government was serious.

 

 

The following day the government provided buses to relocate them to their rural homes. Few of IDPs numbering to 150 decided to hang on insisting that they had no where to go.  A few days later, the Government threw them out of Jamhuri Park and they decided to camp outside the gate where they are up to today.  The situation is very pathetic because they are sleeping outside with nothing to cover them.

 

Nevertheless the relocation went on smoothly.  The African Evangelistic Enterprise provided the IDPs with the relocation kit to help them start their lives.  The numbers of IDPs put in homes are 236 while the total number of people relocated is 2914.

 

Due to the violence in Mathare, Soweto and Korogocho slums where AEE have several projects, many families got affected and left with no source of income because most of their businesses were destroyed and some were looted.

 

We are involved in distribution of food to these vulnerable groups.  The World Relief has given us food twice which we have distributed in Mathare, Korogocho and Soweto.  We still need more assistance.

 

AEE has already started the process of peace, healing and reconciliation in most parts of Nairobi.  We are planning to extend this to the Rift Valley and Nyanza provinces.

 

We also intend to start reconstructing new houses for IDPs who have joined their relatives in the rural areas but they don’t have a place they can call home.  We need a lot of assistance to help the IDPs settle down and rebuild their lives again.  We intend to start these in Londiani in Rift Valley where AEE held an annual mission in 1996 and Western Provinces and later come back to Nairobi.  The reason being, that in the former areas, people have legal documents of land ownership unlike in the Nairobi’s slum areas which needs time for government’s approval.

 

 

Prayer Requests

 

·        The ongoing peace talks

·        The IDPs that they will be able to settle down

·        Different tribes that they will be able to live together again

·        Peace, healing and reconciliation initiative

·        Finances – to reconstruct new houses and start new businesses

 

 

Thanks

 

 

Loise Kihara

FOR REV. STEPHEN MBOGO & AEE TEAM