The circus on the long-overdue resettlement of the squatters who were evicted from the Mau forest complex is sickening.
Time and again, the squatters have been promised by various Government officials, including the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, that their woes will soon come to an end since land for their resettlement has been identified.
First came the promise by suspended minister William Ruto, who said he had met President Kibaki and a plan had been set in place to resettle IDPs.
These promises have however come to naught as IDPs continue languishing in the cold in makeshift structures on the roadsides.
There has been blame shifting, with the latest being Lands Minister James Orengo claim that his ministry has identified the land while the Ministry of Finance is holding on to the purse strings. Add this to an earlier assertion by the Minister for Special Programmes Esther Murugi that the Mau evictees would only be settled after the post-election violence IDPs and one has a Government that is not speaking in one voice.
In the first place, it was wrong for the Government to have ejected the squatters out of the forest only to think about their resettlement as an after-thought.
Secondly, resources should not be the issue because the country can marshal adequate resources to ensure the displaced people are resettled. The resettlement of IDPs and the Mau squatters needs to be better managed and coordinated.
Source: The Standard | Online Edition
0 comments:
Post a Comment