About 2,000 housing plots will have been prepared by IOM and the
Kenya Red Cross by today at a site which will  provide
essential shelter to thousands of Kenyans in Eldoret in Rift Valley
Province, the area worst affected by the recent violence.

With an estimated 120,000 people internally displaced (IDPs) in
Eldoret Municipality, 42,000 of whom are in 37 centres in and
around Eldoret, shelter, food, water and sanitation are key needs.
The dispersal of IDPs far and wide across the municipality is also
hampering effective delivery of humanitarian assistance.

However, the establishment of the site by IOM and the Kenya Red
Cross at the Eldoret ASK Show Ground will allow these and other
humanitarian organizations to better assist the IDPs over the
coming weeks.

Although the housing sites already prepared will shelter 10,000
people, the site will eventually accommodate 30,000 IDPs. IOM will
also provide poles, nails and a model of a shelter to aid
construction with tarpaulins being provided by the Red Cross and
CRS.

IOM has also begun rehabilitating existing sanitation facilities
and is organizing the delivery of fuel to the site in order to
minimize the environmental impact of firewood collection.

The Organization has also established several registration
points for IDPs arriving at the site which will be manned by both
its and Red Cross workers.

Although convoys of displaced families are leaving Eldoret on a
daily basis for Nakuru and beyond, the majority of them have been
in the region for decades and have nowhere else to go.

For further information, please contact:

Ashraf El Nour

IOM Kenya

Tel: +254 20 4444 167

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