• The families say they were left out of a programme that resettled 44 other families as their farms were destroyed
• They say they were to be relocated to other farms but the help has not been forthcoming
Three families that were displaced by landslides in Mathioya subcounty, Murang’a, early last year want the government to help them resettle.
The families have been living in a camp at Mutitu Vocational Training Centre. They want to resume normal lives.
The families are part of 47 that were displaced by the heavy rains in April last year but a geological survey done on their farms indicated they were not inhabitable.
They were left out in a programme that helped construct three-room iron sheet houses for the other victims.
The three families said they were to be relocated but the initiative has delayed as they continue to languish in the camp.
Victim James Maina said they prefer going back to their destroyed farms than living in the camp.
“We just want something to be done urgently. Even though relocation was the best option, we do not mind being resettled back on our farms,” he said.
Maina said they have been condemned to live in misery as they wait for their relocation.
“We want to know what happened. Why have we been forgotten?” he asked.
Maina said if the government has not managed to get a farm to relocate them, then it should consider giving them funds.
He said land is available in the same village, and they can buy it if they are given cash.
Joseph Njoroge said his wife left him after overstaying in the camp, taking with her their five children.
He said his two and a half acres farm had livestock and cash crops that enabled him to support his family. He now seeks casual jobs to put food on his table.
“Life here is difficult. Sometimes the jobs are not available and even getting food is a challenge,” he said.
Mary Wambui, who was expectant when a landslide hit, said she goes back to the farm every day to till the land so that she can support her family.
She said staying in the camp has hurt the studies of her daughter, who is in Form 4.
The mother of four, was saved by her two young sons who pulled her out of the mud that was sweeping her to the river at midnight in a heroic act.
Wambui was, however, reprieved to receive a dairy cow from Ahadi Kenya Trust CEO Stanley Kamau on Saturday.
Kamau gifted the cow to the two boys aged 13 and 11 as one way of celebrating their heroic action.
He said other organisations would have come together to help the families had the government and Red Cross not pledged to help them.
“We want to know what happened to the money that was set aside to relocate these families,” Kamau said.
He said disaster management issues should be devolved, saying the family would have been assisted if the situation was being handled by the county.