It’s very very rare for me to get any sort of inspiration from the news let along a Daily newspaper; esp. since I haven’t read or watched news in a long while ever since the elections started at the end of last year. But reading paid off today when I came across this story of the hard work & great minds that some Kenyans have. Kudos to them and shame on the government. Clearly instead of waiting for ’serikali’ to do something for you… do it yourself! My only question is… why isn’t this piece of news on the front pages?

Internal refugees buy land

Posted Monday, August 11 2008 at 17:45

Tired of waiting for any meaningful assistance from the Government, 150 internal refugees have pooled resources and bought a two-and-a-half-acre plot at Maai Mahiu.

Each of the refugees was given Sh10,000 by the Government. From this amount, they contributed Sh4,000 each towards the purchase of the land.

They have now left Naivasha for the semi-arid Maai Mahiu plains to start an uncertain future, hoping that the Government will keep its promise to give them building materials and food.

“We put our heads together and decided to buy something tangible since we realised the money would be of little help if spent individually,” said the group’s spokesman Mohamed Ngugi.

They came up with the idea after realising that the Government was not resettling them.

Some of them have already moved with their tents to the plot, eager to start a life afresh after more than eight months in crowded camps.

The Jikaze Town Self-Help Group consists of people who were engaged in different businesses prior to the post-election violence.

Elsewhere, two MPs from the Mount Kenya region have criticised the Government over delays in resettling internal refugees.

Mathira MP Ephraim Maina and his Igembe counterpart Mtoithia Mithiaru described as peanuts the Sh400 million set aside in this year’s budget for resettlement.

The lawmakers said the figure shows that the Government was not serious about the whole issue resettling the victims. They said they would soon table a motion in Parliament in a bid to have more funds allocated for resettlement.

Top left column, Provincial News, p. 3. The Daily Nation.