Kenya government sued for suffering of displaced ?report

NAIROBI (AlertNet) – A Kenyan MP is suing five members of the country’s cabinet for failing to resettle thousands of people displaced by 2007/8 post-election violence, the Daily Nation reported on Wednesday.

Thousands of displaced families are still living in dire conditions – in torn tents without access to health or education services – four years after violence over a disputed poll killed 1,200 people and displaced over 600,000. Violence between supporters of rival presidential contenders was fuelled by historical grievances between different ethnic communities.

“The condition of the IDPs (internally displaced persons) is deplorable. This has led to deaths of children and women in the camps,” Naivasha Member of Parliament John Mututho told another paper, The Star.

“Five years after the violence took place, the government through its officers has failed to take any tangible steps to address the issues of IDPs and instead they have decided to play poker and politics with their lives.”

Mututho sued Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Lands Minister James Orengo, Special Programmes Minister Esther Murugi and the Attorney General Githu Muigai

Naivasha, 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, is home to many internally displaced people who fled their homes in Rift Valley Province.

Mututho wants to compel the government to provide displaced people with adequate food, shelter, clean water and other basic amenities.

The case will be heard next week.

Mututho has been embroiled in controversy for ferrying a group of displaced people to forcibly occupy a privately owned 4,500-acre farm in Nakuru, demanding that the government buy it to resettle them.

Some displaced people burned an effigy of Mututho, accusing him of meddling with their resettlement for his own political gain.

(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)