Kenya's Internally Displaced People

The Internally Displaced people who number between 350,00 and 600,000 depending on who you talk to (Government figures: 350,00 while Kenya Red cross Society puts the figure at over 600,00) continue to grapple with a myriad of problems as the two key politicians engage in a blame game.

President Mwai Kibaki and prime minister designate Raila Odinga have been pointing fingers as to who should shoulder blame over the delay in naming the cabinet which is said to be a key step in ensuring that IDP's are resettled.

When the two men signed a power sharing agreement towards the end of February, president Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga who is also the leader of the Orange Democratic Movement promised to keenly look into the IDP's menace. A month has since passed and nothing substantial has been done to address their plight.

Their suffering has been exacerbated by the onset of the long rains. The young ones have had to bear the brunt of the cold weather. So far, two children havelost their lives to pneumonia in Nakuru's Afraha stadium.

Previously this same camp has had an outbreak of diarrhoea and Malaria. The few toilets and bathrooms available in the camp cannot deal with the numbers sheltering there.

Efforts by some of the IDP's to dig trenches at least to make way for the raging waters has at least shielded their tents but whether this is sustainable is highly debatable.

THE LULL

There is no near end to their suffering though as the two top politicians who hold the key to the resettlement of the IDP's have been busy discussing about what cabinet posts to award members of their respective parties.

Infact, the debate of Kenya's forgotten lot seems to have taken back stage as ODM's Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki busy themselves with how big or small the cabinet should be and which party should take what portfolio.

The after-shock waves of the post election melt down that threatened to split Kenya in two has squarely been the burden of people whose crime was to belong to an ethnic group (which all Kenyans do anyway), or subscribing to a different political ideology.