Economy

Govt to spend Sh100m to to compensate victims of Kerio Valley attacks

kerio valley

Armed men herd cattle near River Kerio in Kerio Valley on the border of Elgeyo-Marakwet and Baringo counties, October 30, 2016. The government has started a Sh100 million programme to compensate victims of banditry and cattle rustling in Kerio Valley. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The government Thursday kicked off Sh100 million programme to compensate recent victims of banditry and cattle rustling in Kerio Valley.

The programme will provide humanitarian and social-economic support to victims of lawlessness that has ravaged the area in the last 10 months, according to Deputy President William Ruto.

The deputy president has been engaged in a series of security tours of the region throughout the weekend and ended on Monday.

Consequently, area chiefs were on Thursday under instructions to authenticate profiled lists of all the victims, according to Elgeyo-Marakwet Deputy County Commissioner Erick Mulevu

Mr Mulevu is the State overseer of the programme in the region.

“We are beginning a meeting today with chiefs from the entire affected region to deliberate on this exercise in respect to having the correct profiles of the beneficiaries within the two-week period," said Mr Mulevu.

Lost kin and property

Anyone who lost their immediate next of kin and property, specifically livestock, will be considered for compensation according to the guidelines, said the administrator.

“We already have the details of the victims because all cases were reported in police occurrence books [OBs] and therefore they will be the resource material.

"Unless any other genuine case is presented before the districts’ security committees so that it can be determined . . .,” said the county commissioner.

Both the police list of documented victims and the records with location chiefs will be verified and ultimately harmonised, added the county commissioner.

Going by the police OB reports, former Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo could also qualify for compensation too as he lost livestock, when bandits vandalised his home in Tot, with some of his relatives being injured.

Five hundred bags of relief food supplies already on the ground distributed by the government alongside an additional 5,000 bags of assorted food items to be added would cater for the victims who did not farm last year as a result of insecurity, said the commissioner.

Beside the Sh100 million kitty, the State has offered another Sh5 million that will go towards school bursaries targeting learners in the schools located in the insecurity-prone regions, said Mr Mulevu.