DP William Ruto says gov’t to resettle and compensate all IDPs

Deputy President William Ruto has assured Kenyans that he, under the leadership of President Uhuru Kenyatta, will not relent until every victim of the 2007/08 Post Election Violence is attended to.

Addressing the media at his Karen home for the first time since the termination of his case at ICC, the DP noted that the post poll violence victims have shown tremendous courage and patience in the resettlement process further expressing confident that every victim will be resettled.

“Under his leadership, we will harness our efforts together to ensure we have a reconciled and prosperous Kenya,” said the DP.

Ruto expressed regret over the 2007/08 post poll violence that led to the loss of life and destruction of property,  something he termed as “a dark and shameful period in the history of Kenya”.

Following this, the DP called on all Kenyans across communities, tribes and religion to collectively choose the path of reconciliation and harmony in a bid to build a united Kenya.

In August last year, former Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru said the government had already settled genuine Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in transitional camps adding that those claiming to be IDPs now would not be compensated or given land.

Waiguru said the government has already resettled over 8,000 victims who were affected by the Post Election Violence.

“I can assure Kenyans that we have resettled everyone who was in the government data. We also compensated them with between Ksh 10,000 and Ksh 25,000,” she said.

In January, however, the government announced that from February, it would start resettling and compensating all the remaining profiled Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the country.

This is the message came after senior government officers and legislators stopped a march to State House by over 3,000 IDPs from Nyandarua County.

The victims of the 2007/08 Post Election Violence were stopped from proceeding with the march by top government officials who intercepted them in Naivasha with the promise that the government would resettle them.

While consoling the IDPs, Special Programmes Principal Secretary Josephat Mukobe said that the government had not forgotten them.

He called for more time adding that she, and the new Cabinet Secretary for Devolution Mwangi Kiunjuri, were barely a month old in the office.

“We have held fruitful discussion and we have agreed that all issue pertaining to integrated IDPs will be addressed starting February,” she said.

In February, the government disbursed Ksh 1.2 billion to resettle and compensate all the remaining IDPs from the 2007 Post Election Violence and directed that all camps be closed.