Beatrice Bitengo explains her predicament

SCANTY information on the plight of women during the post election violence emerged during the public hearings into the violence under Justice Philip Waki at Menyenya High school, Borabu district.

During the hearings in which local leaders, provincial administrators and some victims testified, there was no clear record on women who were raped or sexually molested during the cross-border skirmishes along the Kisii- Borabu border which degenerated into ethnic clashes.

The then Borabu District Commissioner, Asha Kiiva, now Deputy Provincial Commissioner, told the Commission there are no intelligence reports on the impending post election chaos, save for periodic cross borders cattle rustling which was handled by both the police, provincial administration and peace committees along the Kisii- Kipsigis border.

Kiiva says after the announcement of the presidential elections, clashes erupted in the rift Valley and internally displaced victims, majority women and children were ferried into her district where they were transported to Keroka camp.

Her Sotik counterpart, Humphrey Nakitare says the delay in the announcement of the presidential results fuelled the violence by the youths who vented their frustration on their non- Kalenjin neighbors.

Borabu Internally Displaced Persons chairman, Nicodemus Omboga, says the area has 3,474 victims of whom 2000 are women, 700 are children and 774 are men.

Of the total, 668 are households while 2706 are independent IDPs who stay with relatives and friends and do odd menial work to earn a living.

Gusii region, says Omboga received over 50,000 IDPs with few passing through the camps while others headed straight to their ancestral homes, making it hard to know the exact number of the victims who were displaced during the flare-ups.

He says their hosts are becoming impatient amid food scarcity, adding that, women tea pickers, who were replaced at various multinational tea companies in the Rift Valley, were suffering and their children lack food and clothing.

The chairman says they have never been assisted by the government and that their efforts to see the area District Commissioner have been futile. He further said that should their plight not be addressed they shall be forced to hold peaceful demonstrations in order to have the government listen to them.

After resettling some IDPs in their former homes, the majority, especially business women, whose properties were destroyed, remained at the camps awaiting financial support from the government to reconstruct their lives.

The chairman, seconded by his vice, Evans Nyabuto, claim that part the relief food donated to the IDPs by the government and other humanitarian organizations is diverted by its handlers and taken elsewhere, leaving the victims to starve.

Omboga says since June, they have not received relief food and majority of the IDPs who stay far are unaware of the donated food stuff and materials and do not benefit from the donations. This, he says, creates a loop hole for the handlers to dish it to their friends, relatives or sell part of it.

They want the area Member of Parliament, Wilfred Ombui, and the provincial administration to intervene and help the victims be compensated, saying, they risk being displaced again by their hosts and render them hopeless paupers.

During the hearings, there was limited tome for the victims testify before the commission during its two –day hearings, forcing their representatives to give the Commission a report detailing their plight and recommendations.

Beatrice Bitengo, a mother of three displaced from Kapkatet said the violence and subsequent displacement left her unable to feed her children. Bitengo, 28 and a trained nursery school teacher at Chelimo says she has become a laughing stock in her former home.

Married to Josephat Kipkurui and separated due to the post poll skirmishes, she cannot fend for her children’s basic needs. She says, “As a trained teacher, people here are reluctant to hire me to do odd jobs on their farms. Those who give me work, underpay me because they think I cannot do the work.”

She is appealing to the government and other well wishers to offer her an employment opportunity so that she can earn a living.
The ordeal, she says was traumatizing, especially to innocent school –going children who were bundled into government trucks and sent to refugee camps with no food, water, shelter, blankets and even their books.