IOM has provided transportation assistance to nearly 2,000
internally displaced people (IDPs) at the Jamhuri Showground camp
in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, who expressed an interest in being
relocated elsewhere as the camp is closed down.

Nearly 2,500 IDPs had been registered for transportation
assistance but 500 of them decided to make their own way back to
their homes or to other places to seek shelter.

Many of those assisted by IOM had expressed a desire to return
to their former homes while a smaller number said they were
returning to their provinces of origin.

A multitude of partner organizations such as the Kenya Red
Cross, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, United
Nations Children's Fund and the National Alliance of Churches
provided a range of services to the IDPs at the camp that included
the provision of food rations, information on the voluntariness of
being relocated and counselling for the particularly
vulnerable.

More than 480 people still remain at Jamhuri with no other place
to go. Authorities are in the process of identifying other
accommodation possibilities for them. Once found, IOM will provide
assistance for those wanting to leave Jamhuri.

Meanwhile, insecurity has halted the work on site planning by
IOM, Kenya Red Cross and other partners for the relocation of
hundreds of IDP families at Burnt Forest in Rift Valley
Province.

The latest upsurge in violence in western Kenya has led to an
even more fluid movement of people, making it harder to assist
those in need. An IOM assessment mission to Molo last week, ended
abruptly by insecurity in the area, nevertheless revealed that many
of the tens of thousands of IDPs there were sheltering under trees
and were without any basic shelter. There is also an urgent need to
relocate stranded vulnerable groups to safer areas.

For further information, please contact:

Bill Lorenz

IOM Kenya

Tel: + 254 20 4444 167/150

E-mail:   "mailto:wlorenz@iom.int">wlorenz@iom.int