KENYA: ‘Forgotten’ IDPs Near Nairobi Cry Out for Help

NAIROBI, June 13, 2008 (CISA) -Landlords are taking advantage of the plight of persons displaced persons who fled the post-election violence in the Rift Valley Province and are now living at Waithaka shopping centre outside Nairobi.The landlords have nearly doubled house rent. “From last month we have been asked to pay Sh.1,500. Honestly we do not have the money,” Francis Mwangi told CISA.Mwangi who lived in Kuresoi, Molo, said the landlords increased the rent after they learned that a well-wisher had given some IDPs Sh. 6,000.About 350 IDPs are camping at the District Officer’s compound in Waithaka and others are living in rented houses. Those in the camp complained of lack of adequate food and water.The chief of Waithaka Location, Geoffrey Moni, said the IDPs are appealing to well-wishers to send them. Humanitarian organisations seem to have forgotten the people at Waithaka, he said..It has been almost two months since they last received any food donations. This week they got clothes and toys for children from Cyprus brought by Archbishop Makarios of the Orthodox Church in Nairobi.None of the IDPs living in Waithaka has returned home since late December last year.