Kenya: Shelter assistance for those displaced by violence

Kenya: Shelter assistance for those displaced by violence

About 2,000 housing plots will have been prepared by IOM and the Kenya Red Cross by today at a site which will  provide essential shelter to thousands of Kenyans in Eldoret in Rift Valley Province, the area worst affected by the recent violence.

With an estimated 120,000 people internally displaced (IDPs) in Eldoret Municipality, 42,000 of whom are in 37 centres in and around Eldoret, shelter, food, water and sanitation are key needs. The dispersal of IDPs far and wide across the municipality is also hampering effective delivery of humanitarian assistance.

However, the establishment of the site by IOM and the Kenya Red Cross at the Eldoret ASK Show Ground will allow these and other humanitarian organizations to better assist the IDPs over the coming weeks.

Although the housing sites already prepared will shelter 10,000 people, the site will eventually accommodate 30,000 IDPs. IOM will also provide poles, nails and a model of a shelter to aid construction with tarpaulins being provided by the Red Cross and CRS.

IOM has also begun rehabilitating existing sanitation facilities and is organizing the delivery of fuel to the site in order to minimize the environmental impact of firewood collection.

The Organization has also established several registration points for IDPs arriving at the site which will be manned by both its and Red Cross workers.

Although convoys of displaced families are leaving Eldoret on a daily basis for Nakuru and beyond, the majority of them have been in the region for decades and have nowhere else to go.