Reconciliation in Kenya

Joseph Mbatia, an internally displaced person (IDP) in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, would like to return home to Mathare, one of the city's larger slums, but only if reconciliation is part of the deal.
"It is well and good to see our leaders at the national level shake hands and agree to work together but the situation on the ground has not changed; I cannot go back home because no one has addressed the reasons for my displacement," Mbatia told IRIN on 12 March at the Mathare police post depot which he, and 648 other IDPs, have called home since 29 December when post-election violence erupted in parts of the country.

He said: "Someone needs to explain to me how I can go back to my house yet all the neighbours who showed me so much hostility are still there. Some of them are even occupying the rooms I used to let and they do not pay me any rent. How will I live with them? Who will explain to them that we need to live together without suspicion?"

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