Prevention, Protection and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons and Affected Communities Act

This Act may be cited as the Prevention, Protection and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons and Affected Communities Act.

Section 2 provides definitions and interprets terms used in the Act.

Everyone involved in protecting and assisting internally displaced persons in Kenya must act in accordance with the Protocol, the Guiding Principles and this Act.

Apply the provisions of the Protocol and its guiding principles.

The Government and any other organization, body or individual must take into account the rights and freedoms of internally displaced persons (as set out in the Bill of Rights) when responding to internal displacement.

Sections 5(1)–(4) require the Government and other organizations, bodies or individuals to prevent conditions leading to displacement, to prevent internal displacement in listed situations, for the Government to run awareness and training referenced to sections 17–20, and for the Government to establish a prevention mechanism with monitoring, reporting and early warning to specified officials.

The Government must protect every human being against arbitrary displacement.

Subject to the Constitution, the Government must put measures and structures in place to prepare for emergency disasters, ensuing internal displacement, and to mitigate their consequences.

The Government must provide measures for assistance and protection to internally displaced persons (with special attention to communities attached to their lands and vulnerable groups), ensure assistance and protection needs in rural and urban refuge areas are addressed based on need, and must ensure consultation with internally displaced persons when formulating programmes.

The Government must create conditions and provide internally displaced persons with a durable, safe and dignified solution, must respect their right to make an informed and voluntary choice about return, local integration or resettlement, and must ensure consultation with internally displaced persons when formulating durable solutions.

The national Government is responsible for administering this Act; County Governments are responsible within their constitutional functions; the Cabinet Secretary may act for the Government where the Act does not provide otherwise; the Government must carry out the specific responsibilities in subsections (4)–(6) and may delegate those to a Committee.

Establishes the National Consultative Coordination Committee on Internally Displaced Persons, lists its membership, provides that the Accounting Officer shall provide its secretariat, allows certain members to attend or nominate alternates, and specifies appointment roles for the President and Cabinet Secretary.

Section states that the Section must serve as the official impartial and humanitarian focal body liaising between government departments, the United Nations, non-State actors, the Secretariat of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region, and, where appropriate, the African Union.

Section 14 restructures the existing national Humanitarian Fund, makes the Fund the successor to the Humanitarian Fund, and lists sources of the Fund's resources including balances, donations, grants, investment returns, exchequer funds, and other sums.

The Fund must cover certain County Governments' capital and recurrent expenditures that exceed their available resources; specific minimum percentages of the Fund's annual income are allocated to finance the Committee and fund non-State actors, as determined by the National Consultative Co-ordination Committee.

The Accounting Officer must administer the Fund under the general direction of the Committee, and may (with the approval of the Cabinet Secretary responsible for finance) invest or place Fund moneys on deposit.

The national Government must run a nationwide education and information campaign to promote public awareness about causes, impacts and prevention, protection and assistance regarding internal displacement.

The Committee must work with the Government education department to integrate instruction on internal displacement into school subjects at all levels and to develop and implement a training curriculum on internal displacement for all levels.

Every county executive committee must conduct a public awareness, educational and information campaign on causes, impact and consequences of internal displacement and on prevention, protection and assistance for internally displaced persons.

Every city or urban area, working with the Committee, must run a public awareness, education and information campaign about causes, impacts and consequences of internal displacement and on prevention, protection and assistance for internally displaced persons within its jurisdiction.

The Government must avoid displacing or relocating people for development or environmental projects, and when displacement cannot be avoided it must minimize harm, assist affected persons, and provide durable solutions for permanent displacement.

Internal displacement of persons resulting from a lawful compulsory acquisition of land, subject to prompt payment in full of just compensation, shall not constitute arbitrary displacement for the purposes of this Act.

No person must cause, aid or abet arbitrary displacement, and any person who contravenes the listed acts commits an offence punishable by a fine not exceeding five million shillings or imprisonment for up to ten years or both.

A person must not pretend to be, or present himself in a way that suggests he is, an internally displaced person when he is not one.

The Cabinet Secretary may make rules to give effect to the Act, on recommendation by the Committee.