Internally displaced persons (IDPs) at the Jamhuri grounds, Nairobi, Kenya. January 2008 © Julius Mwelu/IRIN
The battle for a peaceful Kenya is far from over as a semblance of everyday life remains a distant dream for most Kenyans. While this month saw the signing of a power-sharing deal, the fight for peace and stability in the country is no where near complete. The “Real work” begins after political deal, while the power-sharing agreement between Kenya's two main political parties may be set, humanitarians working in the country state that the real work hasn't even started yet, as reconciliation and resettlement is the true priority and test of peace. “We still have 200 camps [for the displaced],” Bob McCarthy, regional emergency coordinator for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), said. “People are being assisted to meet their immediate, short-term needs. The challenge now is to establish whether conditions are conducive for IDPs to return to their homes”.
It is the IDP children falling through protection cracks amid the ciaos and displacement. Children in the camps lack access to proper education, healthcare, and lack the basic necessities of childhood including play. With some 150,000 displaced children in dire need of support and care to cope with the mental trauma they have endured. Many children who have; witnessed the unspeakable, are now parentless, separated from their families. Healing the children is the biggest challenge of Kenya in the wake of the post-election violence.
“The future of Kenya is very dark because the children are bringing up, the things they saw, we don't know how those things are going to [affect] their lives,” said James Riako, a counselor with the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), working in a transit camp for displaced people in the grounds of St Stephen's Cathedral in Kisumu, the capital of Nyanza Province in western Kenya.
While it appears the countries focus is shifting to recovery, resettlement of IDPs, and while many IDPs are ‘voluntarily’ able to return home it seems unlikely that many will make quick returns as the infrastructure remains crippled and the feeling of security has not completely returned for most in the country. According to the UN's guiding principles on internal displacement those displaced may go back to the homes from where they fled, be resettled in another part of the country or reintegrated into the area of displacement. This has sent many Kenyans searching for their ‘ancestor's’ homes, others have sought to return home, but it has left many to remain in IDP camps as the fear of renewed clashes remain. According to the UN's principles;
“Competent authorities have the primary duty and responsibility to establish conditions, as well as provide the means, which allow internally displaced persons to return voluntarily, in safety and with dignity, to their homes or places of habitual residence, or to resettle voluntarily in another part of the country. Such authorities shall endeavour to facilitate the reintegration of returned or resettled internally displaced persons.”
The words safety and dignity stand out the most, and one can imagine this is the battle that will be the hardest for most looking to return home.
Sadly violence in the country has not completely subsided with the signing of the power-sharing agreement, and peace still looms in the distance. This week has been met with more out brakes and tension is high as hundreds flee clash-torn Laikipia where it has left some 300 houses destroyed by fire, leaving some 3,000 people to flee and resulted in some 14 deaths in the last 3 weeks.
So can Kenya's children be healed? The truth is something only time can tell, as the country continues to remain in shambles despite the loosely painted image of peace. The children more than anyone need the return of normality, and for their sake one can only hope that it will come soon, and end their suffering. When peace finally covers Kenya the children will continue to be the ones in most need of rehabilitation and psychological care.