By JOHN NJAGI jnjagi@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Sunday, March 25 2012 at 21:00
Posted Sunday, March 25 2012 at 21:00
A second group of 300 IDPs from the Mawingu camp in Nyandarua County was on Sunday moved to Suguroi Farm in neighbouring Laikipia.
The individuals, who were displaced in the 2007/2008 election violence, finally found a place to call home. Each family has been allocated two-and-a-half acres, where they will build a home and carry out farming.
“This is a dream come true and it is an indication that God has been faithful,” said Mr Peter Kariuki, chairman of the Mawingu IDP camp.
The resettlement of 1,500 internally displaced families on 4,500 acres at Wiyumiririe in Laikipia County, which were bought by the government, was a godsend.
The families, who bade farewell to one of the largest IDP camps in the country, were ferried by buses while trucks carried even the tiniest of their belongings.
The resettlement of the IDPs, who had lived in camps for four years, came after intense wrangles involving the government, some communities and other interested parties, with several false starts.
With the warm reception they received from the area residents, the IDPs can at last heave a sigh of relief after finding land they can call their own. Above all, they will enjoy living with friendly neighbours.
Mr Kariuki, said they would hold a peaceful march along the Nyeri-Nyahururu road to show their gratitude to the government for honouring its promise to resettle them.
“We are also planning to name roads within the farm after prominent personalities in government who have been at the forefront in having us resettled,” he said.
The resettlement programme has, however, been embroiled in controversy, with some communities declining to have the IDPs become their neighbours for reasons bordering on ethnicity.
Some individuals have sought to scuttle the process in a bid to benefit from the billions of shillings involved in the programme.
Mr Kariuki claimed he had been approached by some influential people to become party to a scheme to derail the process.
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