Abstract: The election related violence and resource based conflict have been major drivers in Kenya’s internal displacements making Kenya a substantial contributor to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), now perceived as one of the 21st Century’s tragedies that humanitarian sector has to address. Statistics by United Nations agencies on displacements and refugees puts this figure at over forty million people, a number that represents 62 per cent of global internal displacements inflows. Whereas studies have revealed that the rights and needs of IDPs are best protected and sustainably served when adequate support systems and sufficient resources are in place in the affected communities, limited studies that have evaluated this scenario exist. Further, according to studies done by Kimungi(2013) and International Development Monitoring Centre (IDMC) (2017), internal displacement’s negative consequences in terms of people’s wellbeing and human rights have been highlighted for decades, but its impacts on and relationship with socio-economic development are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to address this empirical gap by examining the nature of IDPs resettlement in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya with a view to decipher its influence on sustainable community cohesion and development after resettlement exercise. A sample size of 184 was used, being composed of 135 household heads, 28 key informants and 21members from three focus group discussions (FGDs). The mixed research design that comprised of concurrent triangulation, evaluation and cross sectional survey was employed. Multiphase, stratified sampling and purposive sampling were used to select households, key informants and FGDs respectively. The data for study was obtained through questionnaires, interviews, document analysis, and observation checklist. Frequency tables, pie charts, verbatim quotations and chi-square tests were used to analyse data. The study established that most of the resettled IDPs were reintegrated in their previous environment after three years in camps and that majority of the respondents .Chi-square tests revealed a significant relationship between cohesion on resettlement and development in the study area. It was concluded that the resettlement of IDPs in Uasin Gishu County which occurred after three years had influence on the sustainable community cohesion and development. The study recommends that all options of resettlement especially reintegration and relocation be considered whenever this activity is being considered elsewhere.
Keywords: resettlement, IDPs, cohesion, development, Uasin-Gishu County.
Title: Influence of Resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons on Sustainable Community Cohesion and Development in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya
Author: Jonathan Koech, Prof.Kennedy Onkware, Dr. Ferdinand Nabiswa
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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