Monday, January 16, 2012

Mau, Embobut forests evictees to choose where to be resettled



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More than 4,000 who were evicted from Mau and Embobut forests in the Rift Valley will now be allowed to chose where they want to be resettled by the government. And the government has allocated more than Sh2.3 billion for their resettlement, according to Special Programmes permanent secretary Andrew Mondoh.
Mondoh said each of the families of those evicted has been allocated Sh450,000 to buy a two-acre piece of land at the area of its choice. ''The first batch of the evictees will be resettled in Eldoret but those in Phase 2 will identify land of their choice,'' he said, adding: But the government will pay the land owners directly and will not give the cash to the beneficiaries.'' "Allowing them to choose will to settle will help them integrate quickly with the community members of the areas," said the PS.
Mondoh has been touring parts of the North Rift region where IDPs have been ressettled. He visited Eldoret and Kitale areas. The ressetlemnt exercise, he said, is in the last phase and the government intends to give homes to all displaced families within the next few months. However, the government is buying another piece of land in Narok where the remaining people, who were displaced from their homes by the 2007-2008 post-election violence, will be resettled.
Mondoh said the ressetlemnt programme has cost the government more than Sh3 billion since it started. "We are in the final stages and we want the exertion to be completed soon so that all the displaced families have homes," he said. In North Rift, the government has listed 3,500 families who will be resettled this year. They include IDPs and families evicted from forests.
Rift Valley Deputy PC Wanyama Musiambo said the victims include more than 2,996 families evicted from Embobut forest in Marakwet and 357 families displaced by landslides in the same district. Also to be resettled are 110 families of IDPs who are still living in camps at Sasaka and at Kamwingi in Uasin Gishu county. "The ministry of Special Programmes already has details of the listed families and efforts are being made to give them homes as soon as possible", Musiambo said.
He said most of the IDPs in the region had been completely resettled. "We are now working with the district peace teams to ensure that communities integrate fully and to date we have achieved a lot of success even in areas like Burnt Forest which are known to be hot spots", Musiambo said.

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