International Medical Corps Responds to Humanitarian Crisis in Kenya

People pick through the rubble of their destroyed houses and shops in Mathare slum after days of post-election riots in Nairobi.

Photo: REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

As post-election violence has swept through large parts of Kenya, IMC is assisting displaced slum dwellers in urgent need of health services. Mobile clinic services are being dispatched to the worst hit areas including Kibera, where more than 700,000 people commonly live in cramped conditions in an area the size of New York’s Central Park. Much of Kibera has been destroyed during violent clashes triggered after fiercely disputed election results were published at the end of December.

“Women and children in particular need urgent medical care,” says Peter McOdida, IMC Country Director in Kenya. In Nairobi alone 60,000 people have fled their homes. “The lucky ones are living with family members and friends, but many are sleeping in the streets or spontaneous settlements,” says McOdida. International Medical Corps staff reports that up to 5,000 families are now settling in and around Jamhuri Park in Nairobi, and IMC is preparing to provide immediate services to them.

The human and economic toll in Kenya has reached crisis proportions. Approximately 500 people are reported dead, including many children. The UN puts the figure of displaced people at 250,000 throughout Kenya and says that half a million people are in need of major humanitarian assistance - including medical care, food, and water - and several hundred thousand are threatened by starvation. Many homes have been destroyed and businesses looted in brutal clashes between security forces, political opponents and marauding gangs. Kenya has one of the most robust economies in Africa but is now losing $31 million in tax income every day because most businesses cannot operate.

One of the hardest hit urban areas is Kibera, a vast slum in Nairobi where whole areas have been burned and looted. Normally IMC provides treatment for 3,400 tuberculosis patients and supports HIV-infected mothers with food and income-generating programs. When services at the TB clinic resumed on Friday only 20 people came to get their medication, compared to the 200 patients IMC staff sees on peaceful days. “If TB patients default on their treatment, they will have to restart the course and could eventually develop drug resistance,” says McOdida. IMC staff also warns that most people living in Kibera are now without any income and food, with the vast majority being casual and day laborers who rely on daily income. Since the elections, most have not worked.

In Nyanza and Rift Valley, two provinces in western Kenya that have experienced an eruption of violence and brutal clashes, International Medical Corps is conducting assessments and will respond to the most urgent needs as soon as possible in collaboration with the Kenyan Red Cross. Two hospitals in the western town of Eldoret reported to UNICEF that 40 percent of their 700 in-patients are children with burn injuries and another 1,000 were treated as out-patients. The clinics lack immunization supplies, water purification equipment and latrines. Other hospitals report cases of malnutrition in children.

According to media reports there is a sharp increase in rape cases as a result of indiscriminate violence and lawlessness in some parts of the country. Further reports indicate men and boys also have been sexually assaulted and mutilated. IMC is now exploring the possibility of providing psycho-social and mental health services as part of a recovery and rehabilitation program. IMC has successfully run similar programs in several countries where populations have experienced large-scale violence and loss.

International election observers have raised concerns about the elections process and implied serious irregularities. In a preliminary report the EU Observation Mission says the elections have fallen short of key international and regional standards. Despite some initial international diplomatic initiatives there have been no talks scheduled to attempt breaking the political deadlock.