Resettlement plan offers land owners lucrative opening

The government is looking for huge chunks of land to resettle internally displaced persons (IDPs), ending its biggest headache and giving landowners an opportunity to tap into at least Sh3 billion.

Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said to resettle landless IDPs, at least 20,000 acres was required in an ambitious project that could give each household three acres and trigger a land selling wave.

Of the 350,000 IDPs who had sought refuge in 118 camps following the 2008 post election violence, Treasury says, only 30,000 people were yet to be settled.

Mr Kenyatta said, the Ministry of Lands is in the process of buying 3,522.3 acres of land at a cost of Sh500 million while the rest of the required land, once identified will cost Sh2.9 billion.

Treasury plans to seek an extra Sh1.8 billion in a revised budget early this year to compensate people evicted from the Maasai Mau Forest.

“At least Sh823 million will be used for payment of ex-gratia for IDPs, ” said Mr Kenyatta in a statement on Thursday while releasing official figures on how many people were affected by the chaos.

“It is now confirmed that as a result of the violence, 78,254 homes were destroyed and 663,921 people displaced from their homes and they fled to other parts of the country. Of the 663,921 people displaced in early 2008, 313,921 were integrated among various communities, while the remaining 350,000 sought refuge in 118 camps across the country, ” he said.

Sharp criticism

The Coalition Government has come under sharp criticism over its faltering commitment to re-settle the thousands of families.

Critics said some Kenyan politicians have been far more focused on enriching themselves by stealing from public coffers and protecting their political interests than helping the plight of those whose lives were shattered by the violence—some of which was instigated by politicians.

“The slow resettling of IDPs is one of the low points of 2010,” said Gichugu MP Martha Karua this week.

Resettling the thousands of Kenyans whose lives were uprooted was always going to be a huge task and has for since the existence of the Grand Coalition remained work in progress.

The call for resettlement of these families has been accompanied by a clamour for intense justice and reconciliation efforts in order to prevent a repeat of the violence at the next election, due in 2012.

But the Government is quick to defend its record, saying it had initiated several measures to resettle the families.

Mr Kenyatta said over the past three years, Treasury has, through responsible line ministries, allocated Sh7.9 billion towards the resettlement of IDPs.

“Treasury, has made funds available for, among other things, purchase land for the resettlement of IDPs, providing a start up fund for each IDP household amounting to Sh10,000 and financing the reconstruction of homes destroyed during at a cost of Sh25,000 for very IDP household”

The Kenya Anti Corruption Commission is said to be investigating officials at the Special Programmes ministry over the plunder of millions of shillings released by the government to resettle (IDPs).