Kenyan Refugees Survive Poisining in Uganda

From New Vision Uganda 13th January 2008

By Raymond Baguma and Nathan Etengu THE Government and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) plan to relocate hundreds of Kenyan refugees to a new inland transit centre at Mulanda in Tororo district. The relocation also follows reports of attempted poisoning of the refugees camped at the Malaba border post. Tororo resident district commissioner Samuel Mpimbaza Hashaka disclosed last week that wrong elements sneaked into the refugee camp and into the kitchen and put poison in the food that was being prepared for the refugees. “We were lucky that we detected the poisoning before the food was served. Otherwise, it would have been a big embarrassment to the Ugandan community,” Hashaka said. He said his office continues to receive threats from people in Kenya, who claim that they plan to cross to Uganda to massacre the refugees, who aremostly Kikuyu. Hashaka said two Kenyans from the Kalenjin tribe had been arrested in connection with the poison incident. Samples of the food will be tested for poison before any charges are preferred against the suspects. Kenyans have been fleeing to Uganda in the past weeks following the post-election violence, which has left about 700 dead and thousands displaced. The disaster preparedness minister, Prof. Tarsis Kabwegyere, in a statement issued on Friday, said refugees have been reported in the districts of Busia, Tororo, Manafwa, Kapchorwa, Bukwo, Bududa and Nakapiripirit. Kabwegyere said by Wednesday last week, 6,130 Kenyan refugees had been registered in Uganda. “The Government, together with UNHCR, plans to relocate the refugees from the various reception centres to a transit centre at the former Mulanda Technical Institute in Tororo. The district leadership has been asked to avail this land for temporary accommodation of the refugees,” he said. The assistant commissioner for refugees in the Office of the Prime Minister, David Kazungu, said the relocation would ensure the safety of refugees living near the border. Kazungu said the areas hosting the refugees had limited space, and there was need to take them to Mulanda, which has better sanitary facilities and water. He also said the Government forecasts that the Kenyan unrest would be short-lived and it did not warrant taking the refugees to settlement camps. “But if it continues, we may relocate them again.” On Thursday, Busia Woman MP Rose Munyira toured Busia Integrated Primary School, which is hosting the refugees and found that the pit latrines had filled up. “There are concerns that the refugees are redundant, the schools have no bathing shelters and the local health centres have no drugs,” the MP said. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said over the weekend that the unrest in western Kenya could force more refugees into Uganda following the failure of the African Union mediation efforts. OCHA said the refugees should be relocated as soon as possible because the schools, where most of them are living, would soon re-open for the first term early next month.


http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/606506