The violence that erupted after the Kenyan election results were announced has left scores of people dead. Tens of thousands have been displaced, some beyond reach of immediate assistance. A UN organization says about 500,000 people need help. Those who are lucky have managed to cross Kenya’s borders in search of shelter and food. Uganda is one of Kenya’s neighboring countries where camps have been set up by agencies such as the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
Stephano Severe, UNHCR representative in Uganda, spoke on the phone with VOA reporter Akwei Thompson about the current Kenyan refugee situation inside neighboring Uganda.
“ At the border area, for the last few days, we have received about 2,000 people at three different entry points of the Kenyan/Uganda border, mainly in the ”district of Tororo, as well as, Busia,” Severe said.
He explained how the UNHCR and other agencies are helping.
“First of all, the first actors on the ground were the local authority that actually mobilized the first reception and assistance together with the Ugandan Red Cross.”
He said “ some of the 2,000 people in question are located in three different schools…and some have gone either directly to relatives, or put themselves up in small hotels or so with their own means.”
