Kenyans Flee Into Uganda

Citizens Flee Into Uganda - Red Cross

New Vision (Kampala)
NEWS
1 January 2008
By Nathan Etengu, Cyprian Musoke, Paul Kiwuuwa and Milton Olupot

OVER 500 Kenyans have fled to Uganda, the Red Cross Society has said. According to the deputy national coordinator, Richard Nataka, the refugees are stranded at the border town of Malaba.

"We shall provide them with blankets, cooking pots, water containers and sleeping materials," he said. Two reception centres have been established at St. Jude's Primary School and Koitangiro Primary School to cater for the refugees.

Tororo chief administrative officer, Felix Esoku, confirmed that the number of Kenyan refugees had reached 550. "We managed to get some relief food from the World Food Programme," he said.

But Malaba town council chairman, Alfred Obore, estimated that thousands more had quietly settled with friends and relatives on the Ugandan side of the border. The refugees started entering Malaba and Busia on Sunday night as gunfire raged on the Kenyan side.

"We were forced to flee after we saw our neighbours' houses being looted and burnt. We ran with barely anything," Peter Mugo, an ethnic Kikuyu, said.

He said the looters targeted the homes of the Kikuyu and Kamba, the tribes that voted largely for President Mwai Kibaki.

Earlier on Monday, Tororo county MP, Geoffrey Ekanya, had called upon the Government to assist the refugees.

"My appeal to the Government is to immediately start registering the refugees and accord them the treatment stipulated under the international refugee statute," he said at a press conference at Parliament.

He estimated that some 200 families had been sleeping on the streets of Mbale, Tororo, Busia and Malaba without food and water for three days.

"The wealthy have occupied all the hotels in Mbale, Tororo and Busia, leaving the poor ones to crowd the streets."

From his constituency, all the way from Mt. Elgon to Busia, he said shooting could be heard and smoke could be seen across the border as petrol stations, vehicles and supermarkets were set ablaze.

State minister for primary health Emmanuel Otaala, who addressed the refugees at the Malaba customs compound on Monday, called for calm and appealed to the Ugandans to be receptive to Kenyans.

"In the East African spirit of cooperation, we have to be receptive to the Kenyans. Let us look after them as our brothers and sisters," he said.

The usually busy Malaba border post and the road linking Uganda to Kenya now looked totally deserted. Many shops on the Ugandan side of the border were closed, while money changers kept away from their verandas.