IOM has handed over the first homes of a UN Central Emergency
Response Fund (CERF)-funded pilot shelter project for 700 families
displaced by the post-election violence that rocked Kenya earlier
this year.

The houses, built from traditional mud bricks and CGI tin
roofing sheet on the site of previously destroyed homes, are in
Molo, Uasin Gishu and Lugari districts in the Rift Valley province,
some of the areas worst hit by the civil unrest .

The conflict triggered by the contested result of the December
2007 presidential election, displaced some 350,000 people, of whom
some 200,000 have returned home from camps since the new coalition
government launched Operation Rudi Nyumbani (Return Home) in
May.

But government estimates suggest that as many as 60% of families
are returning to a damaged or completely destroyed homes and
communities will need to be largely rebuilt to restore confidence
and stability, according to IOM's Regional Representative for
Eastern and Central Africa Ashraf El Nour.

"IOM's pilot project is adopting a rights based approach working
in close collaboration with the community. In order to boost the
local economy, IOM is also purchasing all the construction material
locally and employing local people to work on the project," he
says.

"But as many as 40,000 more houses still need to be built or
repaired in order to induce other displaced families to return home
to their farms. IOM is therefore looking for funding to build an
additional 12,000 homes after this pilot scheme is completed in
November," he adds.

For further information, please contact:

Ashraf El Nour

IOM Nairobi

E-mail: "mailto:aelnour@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">aelnour@iom.int

or

Jerotich Seii Houlding

E-mail:  "mailto:jseiihoulding@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">jseiihoulding@iom.int