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The plight of the internally displaced PEV victims is an ugly eye sore in the Kenya political landscape. The manner in which the state has dealt with the whole issue is sickening and inept. The recent resettlement debacle at Endebess and Mau Narok should be a wakeup call.
The government should rethink of a better methodology of dealing with the IDP menace otherwise this issue just like unemployment, poverty and general national discontent among the citizens remain a time bomb awaiting explosion
The IDPS are products of selfish political competition and diet of tribalism a delicacy of a click of Kenya's privileged political elites. The thinking that the government can unilaterally buy parcels of land for the victims, hound them in Lorries and transport them to unwelcome areas is misguided and irrational.
This unfortunate policy reminds one of the infamous colonial government Native Removal policies from the white highlands to Native settlements. However the colonialists were better of as they were executing their evil mission within an unpopular frame work of their then laws.

The country's constitution allows Citizens to settle anywhere within the land, however the rights of the inhabitants in specific regions must be respected. The government must avoid engaging in divisive and suspicious policies which overtly seem to provoke local communities in the proposed resettlement areas.
Such communities and their leaders must be consulted before settling IDPs in their regions so that the social economical and political implications of the resettlement can be appreciated. Indeed such openness cultivates mutual trust among a people coexisting together.
The IDP concerns must be addressed under a clear legal frame work as opposed to an amorphous rudderless actions propagated by the Ministries of the Special Programme, Finance and Lands.

The unending blame game between the concerned ministries in regard to availability of funds or purchasable land add no value to the plight of the IDPs.An effective way of resolving the IDP menace must be evolved. The Ministry of Special Programme seems to be a den of opaque policies.
Acts of dishing out money handouts and building materials may be beneficial but cannot effectively tackle the persistent manace.In the past the main beneficiaries of this misguided mission have been dubious characters either masquerading as IDPs and or associates of some corrupt provincial administrators and NGOs.
The office of the Attorney General must formulate a bill for debate and enactment by parliament to address the historic circumstances of the IDPs.The Bill should set standards of determining who qualify to be an IDP, prescribe suitable and relevant remedies to the victims, give directions on the manner of handling assets including lands previously owned by the IDPS among other things.

Indeed there is no reason why progressive members of parliament should not take a similar initiative through a Private Members Bill. Such legislation can establish a special court mandated to invite and adjudicate IDP petitions.
The court should give directions on when and how to close all the IDP camps, prescribe penalties to thieves of the IDP resources and likeminded imposters. The court ought to be limitlessly accessible by IDPs and be without elaborate procedural and technical emphasis.
It should set a reasonable time frame of receiving petitions from those who consider themselves as IDPs.Expidient adjudication of such petitions must be cardinal policy of the court
The special court on basis of the tendered evidence should ably quantify the financial, psychological and social loss of victims and prescribe equitable remedies and compensation.

Relevant NGOs should also court the spirit of seeking a permanent solution to the IDP challenges and liberate themselves from insatiable greed for donations uselessly utilized in rhetorical boardroom seminars on IDP topics.
It is backward to keep on pestering the Government to resettle the IDP while at the same time celebrate proceeds of the menace while administering hypocritical boardroom solutions.
The political class should also stop politicizing the IDP issue for selfish benefits. The IDP issue cannot be solved through political rhetoric's and cheap popularist utterances designed to gain political mirage.
The work of legislators is to enact relevant laws capable of confronting emergent social political challenges in the society. It is not in dispute that enacted laws are the strongest tools for social economic and political change.Harambees and handouts to IDPs may only bring solace for a day.
Buying communal land for victims by the government is ridiculous and makes one smell of a corrupt to benefit certain individuals. The government is the sovereign owner of hundreds of thousands of hectares of land lying idle in various counties.
It is pertinent that the identity of vendors of the resettlement project land be unveiled and costs of logistics thereto be disclosed. The government must respect the victim's right to settle where they would want to buy lands and the quantification of the terms of compensation should be determined through evidence in a special court.
The standard form of such compensation to the IDPs should be monetary. Upon compensation an individual IDP should be free to buy land at any area of choice. Heaping people together on IDPs settlement is not stigmatizing but amount to discrimination and ethnic profiling. This beast of IDP must be strangled and be removed from the face of the country.
George N. Kimani (The writer is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya)

Email-gkihingo @yahoo.com