The world’s largest refugee camp, located in northern Kenya, is shadowed by a story of love, confusion, an array of conflicting cross-border interests, and entanglements as refugees and the host community try to contextualise the unfolding dilemma.
After more than two decades inside what many refer to as the city of thorns, Dadaab camp is on the verge of being shut down, or what others refer to as the relocation of refugees.
Numerous profiles of the Dadaab refugees and their aspirations and capacities have been done.
There seems to be far less documentation on what is actually taking place in what some consider to be the third largest city in Kenya.
It is important to note that, although the repatriation was a general sentiment, opinions differed from camp to camp.
New arrivals
The newer refugees, particularly those resident in Ifo 2 and Kambios – those arriving with the recent drought – indicated a greater willingness to return than those who have been in Dadaab for many years.
This can be largely attributed to the fact that the new refugees still have a stronger affiliation to their homeland.
Readers unfamiliar with the region have been led to believe that camp is being shut down because of security threats to Kenya, but the Government has not substantiated the claim.
Some people have claimed that the refugee camp is being used as a bargaining chip for more aid from international humanitarian institutions.
The UN requested donors to provide an additional $115.4 million to help in the reintegration of the refugees in other camps.
Voluntary repatriation is going on in the camp, although the Department of Refugee Affairs has been shut down. This has left the refugees facing the risk of death and being arrested. The department delivered crucial administrative services for refugees and asylum seekers.
Is shutting down the department and downsizing the refugee complex the solution to the terrorism threat in Kenya?
In 2009, the Kenyan Government initiated plans to create a buffer zone between Kenya and Somalia, a 700 kilometre wall running from Kiunga in Lamu County to the Mandera-Ethiopia border at River Daawa.
There is a reason northern Kenya is called the Other Kenya. Take a road trip to the border town of Mandera. Experience the sorry state of roads and infrastructure after almost 1,000 km of a torturous journey to the underdevelopment land that county governments in the region are trying to change, and you will get a picture of why the second-class citizens, as they call themselves, depend on the border country.
And that is the main reason you will find that nearly 10 per cent of Kenyans living in Dadaab are falsely registered as refugees - the United Nations estimates the number to be 42,000.
The Government’s neglect of the people of the north is to be blamed for this. Is the Kenyan Government going to repatriate its own citizens?
In war-torn Somalia, Al Shabaab is waging a deadly insurgence against the Somalia government.
Government soldiers and African Union peacekeeping troops continue to suffer retaliatory attacks nearly seven years after the Kenya Defence Forces went to Somalia following the kidnapping of aid workers in the Dadaab refugee complex.
Many Kenyan Amisom soldiers were killed in an Al Shabaab attack - the Somalia government put the toll at 180, but the Kenyan Government did not confirm the figure.
The Kenya Defence Forces captured Kismayu port, a source of income for Al Shabaab from the illicit charcoal and sugar trade.
Ironically, a United Nations report alleged that KDF was involved in the illicit trade.
These are narratives that do not seem to give hope to the Kenyans and refugees who are supposed to return to Somalia, a land that many say will be fertile ground for radicalisation of the youth, majority of whom were born in Kenya.
Political infighting and clan militia have decelerated the momentum of the central government in Mogadishu.
Tough times
The situation is getting tougher for asylum seekers. The world’s newest nation, South Sudan, is at war again, with more refugees spilling across the border into Kenya and Kakuma camp, host to many South Sudanese refugees.
With the Government’s decision to close refugee camps, these people are living in a state of uncertainty. The host community, which after many years of marginalisation has come to the attention of the public, is also perturbed about its future. Is it next after Dadaab?
Be it Kakuma in the northwest or Dadaab in the northeast, the refugee dilemma remains.
In the end, will the State offer solutions that are sustainable and in the best interest of the refugees or succumb to the pressure of exterior challenges?
Mr Mohammed is a KTN reporter
