For some still in camps, leaders' vows are empty

NAIVASHA, Kenya — As Kenya's politicians toured the country's battle-scarred west, walking among the uprooted multitudes, their message was clear: You will be able to go home soon. We, your leaders, will help you.

But in the hardest-hit areas, there is no clear path home. More than four months after a disputed presidential election unleashed weeks of ethnically tinged bloodshed, about 157,000 people are still living in camps.

The challenge facing Kenya's government is immense, even after a historic power-sharing agreement stopped much of the killing.

"We want a Kenya of peace,” said Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who toured a camp in Naivasha, the final stop on a three-day "peace tour” with President Mwai Kibaki. "where everyone can live where they want.”

Kibaki and Odinga — once bitter enemies, now reluctant partners — promised a swift resolution to the displacement during stops in towns including Eldoret, Molo and Naivasha. The region experienced some of the worst bloodshed in the weeks after the presidential election, which both claimed to have won, on Dec. 27; more than 1,200 people died and 300,000 were displaced.

But for many Kenyans, the leaders' promises were empty.

Person Harun Mwangi, 52, said he will never return to Eldoret, where he watched as his two children were among dozens burned alive in a church where they were taking shelter.

"It is better that I become a beggar in Nairobi than to go back to my farm and see the people who killed my children,” he said.