- Families had gone through mental and physical torture following the Monday morning incident
- They were not ready to be resettled in their former land
Image: GEORGE MURAGE
Days after the Mai Mahiu disaster left over 60 dead and property worth millions destroyed, victims of the tragedy are not ready to return to their homes.
The victims instead want to be relocated far away from the area, saying they had been traumatised, and many of their friends and neighbours were killed or are still missing.
This came as members of Uwezo land buying company visited the families living in Mai Mahiu camp.
Uwezo CEO Samuel Maina said the families had gone through mental and physical torture following the Monday morning incident.
He said they would engage like-minded stakeholders in the sector to resettle several families and alleviate their suffering.
“Apart from offering the families food and other basic items, we shall seek ways of getting some of them land and even houses so that they can restart their lives,” he said.
This was echoed by Kevin Wainana, a director at the company, who called on Kenyans to continue supporting the families since they lost all their belongings to the floods.
“We cannot be able to reach out to all those affected but through the support of other Kenyans and organisations we can make a big change,” he said.
One of the victims, George Njogu, said they were not ready to be resettled in their former land.
He said that they were still in fear following the floods that swept everything including houses, livestock and tens of families from the area.
“We thank the government and Kenyans for the continued support but going back to an area where tens of lives were lost and property damaged is a bit challenging,” he said.
David Karanja who was also affected called for an assessment before any resettlement was done to avoid another disaster.
“We are waiting for the government directive on the issue of resettlement and the status of the area where we were displaced as many are yet to recover,” he said.
Evangelist Lucy Ngunjiri who has hosted the victims at her Prayer Center in Mai Mahiu said many needed counselling following the ordeal.
“I decided to give out this facility for free to host these families following the tragedy as they need all manner of support as they restart their lives afresh,” she said.