NAIROBI: IDPs CASH,ANOTHER SCAM?

A boy plays in front of what he now calls home in an IDP camp in North Rift

As a committee has been formed to spearhead the ressetlement of internally displaced persons in the Rift valley,questions are being raised on the IDP menace which have turned into a money making project for some people.
The committee members who include Margaret Kamar, Nderitu Mureithi, zakayo Cheruiyot, Boaz Kaino, John Mututho, Moses Lessonet, Peris Simam and Fred kapondi was formed days priopr to the president's tour of the North Rift for a peace rally.The president has hence said that the government has set aside 1 Billion for the exercise expected to be completed in the next six months.
Questions are ripe that the governmentr could be spending millions of money to feed and house impostors who have turned IDP camps to cash cow.These impostors have mixed with genuine IDPs and some have even been elected as representatives.
In a perfect and well-planned act of deceit going back three years and supported by some corrupt government officials,the impostors,many of whom were never affected by the 2007/2008 post election violence have turned the IDP resettlement programme into an endless scam to get free land,money and other benefits from the government,sympathetic individuals and donors some of them from overseas who give .some organisations money and support to enable them help the victims of the violence that errupted after a disputed presidential election and that left more than 600,000 homeless.
There has been no proper audit or identification plan to determine who is a genuine IDP,three years down the line.This could be one of the biggest scams in the recent past as the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commision director PLO Lumumba recently confimed his agency was investigatingthe Special Programmes ministry over the IDP issue which will narrow down to misuse of millions of shillings and registration of fake IDPs.
Unsettled IDPs have staged demonstrations to protest alleged failure to resettle them threatening to match to State House next week to meet President Kibaki.
The question still lingers,who are the real IDPs?are they still in camps?how much more money will be lost till the government wakes up and smells the coffee?Are fake IDPs cowing funds from the government and going scto free???


Kelvin Mwangi,
Nairobi.