Kitale, Kenya – As violence and instability in Kenya continue to render thousands homeless, International Medical Corps has increased its emergency response to include a third site, Kitale, in support of the country’s 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDP). Continuing its mobile-clinic-administered assistance that has been active in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret, and the Nairobi slum of Kibera, International Medical Corps aims to provide primary and mental heath care services, immunizations, and basic health and sanitation education campaigns to these two communities facing a large influx of IDPs.
In coordination with the Kenyan Red Cross, the Ministry of Health (MoH), and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), International Medical Corps looks to penetrate IDP camps in and around Kitale, a town in the North Rift Valley where the U.N. estimates 40,000 people have migrated to three large and 12 small resettlement areas. With the demand for care high and the supply of resources limited, International Medical Corps will supplement others’ humanitarian asssitance efforts in the area, fanning out to some of Kitale’s medically underserved satellite communities, including Kesogono, Kesogni, Sekhendu, Makutano, and Wamuini.
International Medical Corps conducted interviews in Kitale to select five nurses and one medical officer to work with International Medical Corps. The Kitale program launched in Kesegoni, located about 50 kilometers from Kitale, offering services to the approximately 1,100 IDPs in the area. The settlement has little access to water - its closest source is a kilometer away - and the lack of shelter and non-food items force residents to sleep in a church hall without blankets or mattresses. The International Medical Corps Kitale team will visit the community bi-weekly, providing aid items and health support services. In its first day, the team saw 205 patients, mostly women and children.
The team also offers psychosocial support to help residents cope with the trauma, stress, and anxiety that resulted from the post-election violence and from their subsequent displacement. One 31-year-old displaced woman named Mary is receiving counseling from International Medical Corps to alleviate chronic insomnia. Through tears, the widow and mother of three recounted the events of the past month. She had been at a nearby market on the day of the presidential election, December 27, when she heard gunshots and saw people running to the local police station. She immediately grabbed her children and ran with the crowd.
“This is when I was told that certain tribes were being killed and their houses burnt,” Mary recalls. “I was told that even mine was on fire – I cried, shouted, and became hysterical, as I carried nothing, but I thanked God that I was with my children.”
Mary and her children stayed in the police station for three days, without food, water and blankets before arriving to the IDP camp at Kesegoni. There, they received their first meal since the crisis erupted, joining 700 others who had been left homeless by the violence. She is one of the initial four who sought counseling from International Medical Corps’ psychosocial services in Kitale.
Killing nearly 1,000 and displacing approximately 300,000, Kenya’s political unrest has left thousands homeless, without income or access to health services. Brutal clashes among political opponents and marauding gangs have left homes looted and communities devastated. Widespread violence erupted again at the end of January, as two members of Parliament were murdered and turbulent riots broke out again in Kibera and the Rift Valley.
Since its inception nearly 25 years ago, International Medical Corps’ mission has been consistent: relieve the suffering of those impacted by war, natural disaster and disease, by delivering vital health care services that focus on training. This approach of helping people help themselves is critical to returning devastated populations to self-reliance.