Is closing down Dadaab camp the solution to insecurity?

According to our government Dadaab is to be closed down by November due to insecurity. Other countries are scrambling to pay attention and beg Kenya not to follow through.

I believe that Dadaab is called a camp because of the tents, but it comes nothing close to a refugee camp. This tented city was set up in 1991 to support up to 120,000 people but today, double the number live in this tented city and they have lived here for up to 25 years.

So when this camp closes, what does it mean? People return home? That would be the most logical and simplistic form of response- but no. This camp has been there for 25 years and a large portion of those who stepped into this place have even passed on these very grounds.

The national government has reassured us that there are large parts of Somalia (Jubaland) that have been secured by the government to resettle refugees, about 10,000 acres. People will have a place to go to, they will be supported financially to assist them to get there and it will be a smooth transition and everyone will be happy.

We are talking about sending people back home at a time the world is worrying about accepting people in. No one wants to remain a refugee- that is evident. Absolutely no one wakes up and decides that becoming a refugee is what they aspire out of life. Majority would want to go back.

There is the issue of IDPs in Somalia at the moment, two million respectively. Additionally, transporting people who are Somali and not taking the time to understand the ethnic diversity of refugees. These are people from different clusters of community and we just label them Somali. What about acceptance in Somalia?

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I understand that Kenyans are scared. When it comes to keep us safe from attacks we want to support our government. We have accepted metal detectors in our shopping centers now, frisked before boarding bus, cameras on all the major roads that are constantly flashing.

Many refugees have become citizens or moved to a third party country. There is no doubt the government has been helpful for a number of years. The sovereign decision is respected. If the camp should be closed, there should be a transitional way of doing it. It’s been functioning for several years and these changes things.

The sudden closing of the camp, the haste in which it’s being done, and the little time in which it’ll be done is not the solution. Naturalizing most of these refugees into the Kenyan populous would have been a better option why isn’t anyone looking into it?

Majority of them do not know another home than the tented city. It’s where the sun has risen and set for them for the past 25 years. It shouldn’t therefore turn into the place they were chased away from after 25 years. Daadab was a process and only a process will get it solved adequately. Kenya has done a great service by allowing others find refuge on its land let’s not allow Daadab’s ending erase its good work. Let it end well because it always matters how it ends.