Nairobi News

NewsWhat's Hot

Why former Kenyan refugees are camping at Parliament

By ELVIS ONDIEKI October 13th, 2016 1 min read

Tens of Kenyans who fled to Uganda at the height of the 2007 post-election skirmishes have been camping outside Parliament Buildings for the last one week demanding audience with Speaker Justin Muturi over unmet government pledges.

They accuse the government of reneging on the promises it made to them before they returned to Kenya in May last year after staying at the Kiryadongo Refugee Settlement in Uganda for seven years.

Their leader John Njoroge told Nairobi News on Thursday that they had been promised capital to enable them start businesses, conversion of their children’s Ugandan education certificates into Kenyan equivalents, special support of the terminally ill among other pledges which the Interior ministry has not met.

“We’ve been at Harambee House for two weeks, now at Parliament. We wanted to meet the Speaker of the National Assembly but he is outside the country. We have written a petition and given to them. It has been given to the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee. But its process is long,” Mr Njoroge said.

PAYMENT

He said the protesters outside Parliament “were nearly 200”.

“Some politicians have come and spoken to us. Some have given us a little food then left,” he said.

The group held a similar protest in March and were promised payment by the Interior ministry, which, according to Mr Njoroge, had not happened by Wednesday.

“We left after being given a promise and submitted account numbers. We were told that money would have been deposited within two weeks, which never happened,” he said.

Last year, the Interior ministry told Nation that there were various categories of the post-poll victims and that each had been given a package commensurate to their category.