UN Reports news service on Kenya

Some of you have asked for more details on why we left Kenya. I hope this might give a snapshot of what life is like on the ground there.

Kenya: No Let-Up in Kenya Violence As Political Crisis Continues, UN Reports

UN News Service (New York) 21 January 2008 Posted to the web 22 January 2008

Deadly violence continues across parts of Kenya and the police presence remains heavy, the United Nations reports today, as the country reels from the crisis sparked by last month's disputed election. The bloodshed continued unabated over the weekend with 10 people hacked to death in ethnic violence, mainly in Kericho, Nakuru, Nairobi and Mombasa, and tens of houses torched, according to UN security officials on the ground.

They said the worst incident appeared to be in Kericho, where six people were killed and 50 houses burned last Saturday night. In Nairobi, at least three people were killed in the Huruma slums and 13 admitted to hospital with machete cuts on Sunday. Violence first erupted in the East African nation a few weeks ago, after Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner over opposition leader Raila Odinga in the December polls. Nearly 600 people have been killed and some 255,000 displaced in the ensuing crisis. According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), approximately 1,000 displaced persons arrive in Nakuru each day from violence-affected areas in the Northern Rift Valley.Also in Nakuru, UNICEF says 18 of 134 schools remain closed, and some 240 teachers have failed to report to work. In Molo, the agency reports that 60 per cent of the region's 151,000 children are absent from school due to insecurity and displacement - nearly 400 schools in the area were burned, looted or vandalized. UNICEF is providing tents and recreation kits for distribution by the Kenya Red Cross to enable temporary schools to accommodate displaced children around the country. Kenyan authorities now estimate that 116,000 people are displaced in the Northern Rift Valley region, and they are working with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to devise a distribution plan to provide up to one month's food rations to the displaced. WFP reports that people in Nairobi's Kibera slum continue to need food assistance and UN aid workers have planned another round of food distribution for some 2,000 households later this week.The agency estimates that its food has already reached more than a quarter of a million people. The food has been borrowed from WFP's existing stocks for its operations in Kenya, including an emergency operation targeting some 682,000 people still suffering from the effects of the 2005 drought and more than one million children who normally receive school meals from WFP.