Victims’ dilemma over lost documents

[Guest guest]

And a doctors' club has warned of the likelihood of increased cases

of rape and waterborne disease among the thousands of displaced

people.

NEWS EXTRA

Victims' dilemma over lost documents

Story by NATION Team

Publication Date: 1/11/2008

Victims of the election-related violence in Eldoret are finding it

hard to resume normal life due to the loss of crucial documents.

Identification documents and academic certificates were lost either to

fire that razed their homes or to looters who descended on their

houses and swept everything they found.

Eldoret Town saw some of the worst fighting that broke out after the

Electoral Commission (ECK) declared President Kibaki the winner of

December's election amid controversy over vote tallying.

Electoral Commission chairman Kivuitu admitted to flaws in

tallying of results in some of the poll stations, and observers and

the opposition Orange Democratic Movement complained that the results

had been twisted in President Kibaki's favour.

The conflict led to the loss of hundreds of lives, displacement of

people and massive destruction of property.

Nothing to prove

" I lost all my academic certificates when our home was burnt down, "

said Ms Ruth Nduta Onyando.

" Now I have nothing to prove that I ever went to school although I

have been working for the past five months, " she said.

Mr Mwaura has nothing to show that he is Kenyan. He lost his

national identity card, birth certificate, baptismal card, marriage

certificate, passport and academic documents. Documents for his wife

and four children too were consumed in the inferno that gutted their

Sh3 million house.

" I am an alien in my own country now, " he said sombrely at Langas

Police Station where he is camping.

Mr Kiromo Mwangi lost title deeds to three parcels of land to

looters who chased him away from his house and proceeded to sweep it

clean.

It tears Ms Muthoni Kamau's heart apart to see her children go

hungry yet she has Sh80,000 in her bank account.

But she cannot access it because she lost her ATM card along with

other documents to thieves who stole her bag at the Sacred Heart

Cathedral where she is camping with her two young sons.

" Now we too have to depend on relief food, which would have helped

somebody in greater need than us, " she said.

" I have many friends who I can approach for a driver's job. But my

driving licence was burnt with everything else when our house was set

ablaze, " said Mwaniki, a matatu driver.

At Eldoret Police Station, Mr Mwaniki could not even get an abstract

because the papers had run out.

Neglected them

Separately, more than 1,000 displaced sisal estate workers in Koibatek

and Nakuru districts Thursday claimed that the Government had

neglected them.

The victims who have been working in sisal farms in Banita, Lomolo,

Alphega and Athenai narrated their ordeal at the hands of armed gangs

who burnt their homes, killing two people.

Most of them are landless and had lived on the sisal farms for many

years until hell broke lose last week.

They were ordered to vacate their homes and those who did not were

beaten to death. " We will not go back to that place because we will be

attacked again and the Government has not guaranteed us security, " one

of them said.

Ms Sherry Waweru, a volunteer worker, said that little had been done

to alleviate the woes facing the group camping at Mogotio Police

Station. Among them are several young children.

She said: " A permanent solution must be found because these people are

landless and they have no other place to go. These children may also

miss school which opens next week. "

And a doctors' club has warned of the likelihood of increased cases of

rape and waterborne disease among the thousands of displaced people.

Kenya Medical Association chairman Ochiel said lack of clean

water in most camps in Nakuru, Kuresoi, Eldoret, Kericho and other

areas posed a serious health hazard.

In a statement read by KMA secretary Dr Wala, the group said

its 5,000-strong membership was willing to provide health care

services wherever required.

The KMA statement comes barely a day after the Director of Medical

Services, Dr Nyikal, urged displaced Aids patients who were on

anti-retroviral treatment to make every effort to reach their regular

clinical care centre.

In a media advertisement, Dr Nyikal said those unable to reach their

regular care centre should visit alternative ones near them to access

the vital medication.

In Nyamira, several days after they were evicted from tea estates in

Kericho and Buret districts, hundreds of families are still sheltering

at Ikonge Primary School. Among them are nine unclaimed children and

women who have lost contact with their husbands.

Nyamira district commissioner Karanja Njora was Thursday

leading an evacuation exercise of the displaced people.

" We have been transporting them to their homes but others are still

coming, " he said.

The situation is grim for women who met their husbands in the tea

estates and do not know their ancestral homes.

" I met my husband of four years at the estate and we have two

children. He has never taken me to his home and I don't know where he

is because after the violence everybody went his way, " said a woman

who identified herself only as Bonareri.

Reports by Kipchumba Some, Noah Cheploen, Mike Mwaniki and Angwenyi Gichana

[Guest guest]

And a doctors' club has warned of the likelihood of increased cases

of rape and waterborne disease among the thousands of displaced

people.

NEWS EXTRA

Victims' dilemma over lost documents

Story by NATION Team

Publication Date: 1/11/2008

Victims of the election-related violence in Eldoret are finding it

hard to resume normal life due to the loss of crucial documents.

Identification documents and academic certificates were lost either to

fire that razed their homes or to looters who descended on their

houses and swept everything they found.

Eldoret Town saw some of the worst fighting that broke out after the

Electoral Commission (ECK) declared President Kibaki the winner of

December's election amid controversy over vote tallying.

Electoral Commission chairman Kivuitu admitted to flaws in

tallying of results in some of the poll stations, and observers and

the opposition Orange Democratic Movement complained that the results

had been twisted in President Kibaki's favour.

The conflict led to the loss of hundreds of lives, displacement of

people and massive destruction of property.

Nothing to prove

" I lost all my academic certificates when our home was burnt down, "

said Ms Ruth Nduta Onyando.

" Now I have nothing to prove that I ever went to school although I

have been working for the past five months, " she said.

Mr Mwaura has nothing to show that he is Kenyan. He lost his

national identity card, birth certificate, baptismal card, marriage

certificate, passport and academic documents. Documents for his wife

and four children too were consumed in the inferno that gutted their

Sh3 million house.

" I am an alien in my own country now, " he said sombrely at Langas

Police Station where he is camping.

Mr Kiromo Mwangi lost title deeds to three parcels of land to

looters who chased him away from his house and proceeded to sweep it

clean.

It tears Ms Muthoni Kamau's heart apart to see her children go

hungry yet she has Sh80,000 in her bank account.

But she cannot access it because she lost her ATM card along with

other documents to thieves who stole her bag at the Sacred Heart

Cathedral where she is camping with her two young sons.

" Now we too have to depend on relief food, which would have helped

somebody in greater need than us, " she said.

" I have many friends who I can approach for a driver's job. But my

driving licence was burnt with everything else when our house was set

ablaze, " said Mwaniki, a matatu driver.

At Eldoret Police Station, Mr Mwaniki could not even get an abstract

because the papers had run out.

Neglected them

Separately, more than 1,000 displaced sisal estate workers in Koibatek

and Nakuru districts Thursday claimed that the Government had

neglected them.

The victims who have been working in sisal farms in Banita, Lomolo,

Alphega and Athenai narrated their ordeal at the hands of armed gangs

who burnt their homes, killing two people.

Most of them are landless and had lived on the sisal farms for many

years until hell broke lose last week.

They were ordered to vacate their homes and those who did not were

beaten to death. " We will not go back to that place because we will be

attacked again and the Government has not guaranteed us security, " one

of them said.

Ms Sherry Waweru, a volunteer worker, said that little had been done

to alleviate the woes facing the group camping at Mogotio Police

Station. Among them are several young children.

She said: " A permanent solution must be found because these people are

landless and they have no other place to go. These children may also

miss school which opens next week. "

And a doctors' club has warned of the likelihood of increased cases of

rape and waterborne disease among the thousands of displaced people.

Kenya Medical Association chairman Ochiel said lack of clean

water in most camps in Nakuru, Kuresoi, Eldoret, Kericho and other

areas posed a serious health hazard.

In a statement read by KMA secretary Dr Wala, the group said

its 5,000-strong membership was willing to provide health care

services wherever required.

The KMA statement comes barely a day after the Director of Medical

Services, Dr Nyikal, urged displaced Aids patients who were on

anti-retroviral treatment to make every effort to reach their regular

clinical care centre.

In a media advertisement, Dr Nyikal said those unable to reach their

regular care centre should visit alternative ones near them to access

the vital medication.

In Nyamira, several days after they were evicted from tea estates in

Kericho and Buret districts, hundreds of families are still sheltering

at Ikonge Primary School. Among them are nine unclaimed children and

women who have lost contact with their husbands.

Nyamira district commissioner Karanja Njora was Thursday

leading an evacuation exercise of the displaced people.

" We have been transporting them to their homes but others are still

coming, " he said.

The situation is grim for women who met their husbands in the tea

estates and do not know their ancestral homes.

" I met my husband of four years at the estate and we have two

children. He has never taken me to his home and I don't know where he

is because after the violence everybody went his way, " said a woman

who identified herself only as Bonareri.

Reports by Kipchumba Some, Noah Cheploen, Mike Mwaniki and Angwenyi Gichana