U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 1998 - Kenya

  Kenya hosted approximately 195,000 refugees at the end of 1997: some 150,000 from Somalia, nearly 40,000 from Sudan, 5,000 from Ethiopia, and 1,000 from other countries. About 8,000 Kenyans were refugees in Ethiopia. An estimated 150,000 Kenyans were internally displaced, although estimates varied widely. New rounds of violence forced tens of thousands of Kenyans to flee their homes during the year, adding to the internal displacement that remained from previous years. The number of refugees in Kenya declined in 1997 for the fifth consecutive year, from a peak of 400,000 or more in 1992. Up to 150,000 Somalis, some 70,000 Ethiopians, and smaller numbers of Sudanese and other refugees in Kenya have repatriated or resettled in third countries since 1992. Only 6 refugee camps remained open in Kenya at the end of 1997, compared to 16 camps several years earlier. USCR conducted a site visit to Kenyan refugee camps during the year. Refugees from Somalia Most Somali refugees fled to Kenya during 1991-92 to escape civil war and famine in their own country. More than half have gradually returned to their country, but political instability in parts of Somalia has made many refugees reluctant to risk a return. Somali refugees lived in four areas of Kenya. Nearly 120,000 occupied three camps in the country's remote eastern zone near the Somalia border. Several thousand continued to occupy designated camps in the southeast, near the coastal city of Mombassa. About 10,000 lived in a camp in western Kenya. The fourth concentration of Somali refugees resided in Kenya's urban areas. Tens of thousands of refugees dwelled in cities and major towns despite government restrictions. Government officials asserted that up to 100,000 Somalis lived in urban areas. Kenyan officials have insisted for years that all refugees must live in designated camps to qualify for assistance. Kenyan authorities classified Somalis living outside of camps as illegal aliens. Kenyan police have conducted virtually annual crackdowns to apprehend refugees and other foreigners found in urban areas. A police sweep in July 1997 detained at least 1,000 non-Kenyans, including 200 persons found to be "of concern" to UNHCR who were transported to refugee camps. Kenyan authorities continued their policy in 1997 of gradually closing and consolidating the remaining camps for Somali refugees, partly to encourage more refugees to repatriate. Officials closed one camp along the coast and virtually completed the closure of another during the year. Up to 7,000 occupants of the closed camps moved to existing camps in the east, near the Somali border. Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi and other government officials ordered UNHCR in September to remove all refugees from the country within a month. Kenyan officials had made similar threats in previous years, and, as before, authorities backed down from the ultimatum after discussions with UNHCR. Kenyan officials also indicated that they wanted to begin individual screening of the existing population to determine whether they were bona fide refugees with fears of persecution, but no interviews occurred during the year. Although Somali refugee protection problems have improved in recent years, several major protection incidents occurred during 1997. Arson destroyed a Somali camp along the coast in January, with two known deaths. Kenyan authorities suspected that refugee "bandits" killed several people near camps in the eastern border area. Rapes, banditry, and carjackings remained common in and near refugee sites. The remaining Somali refugee camps continued to provide well established services to the refugee population. The three main camps in the eastern border area, known as the Dadaab camps, contained at least 34 schools for 2,700 kindergarten pupils, 13,800 primary school students, and about 200 secondary school children. Adult literacy classes and programs for disabled refugees were available. The three eastern camps included three hospitals with more than 550 beds, and 12 health clinics. Water taps and boreholes generally provided adequate water supply. Some problems occurred, however. Malnutrition and anemia increased early in the year, partly due to unbalanced diets. Heavy floods damaged thousands of refugee homes and closed major roads used for normal relief delivery. Food rations were reduced. Aid agencies conducted a humanitarian airlift of food, fuel, and other supplies in December in response to the flooding. The flooding caused an increase in malaria and water-borne disease among the refugee population, according to aid workers. During a USCR site visit in mid-year, refugees complained about a lack of cooking oil and their need for clothing. Kenyan officials told USCR that local environmental groups were suing the government because of environmental damage that the refugee camps caused. About 200 Somalis repatriated from Kenya with UNHCR assistance during the year. Drought in Somalia caused at least 5,000 Somalis to enter Kenya seeking refugee assistance. Kenyan officials and UNHCR agreed that the new arrivals were not fleeing persecution and did not qualify for refugee status. Refugees from Sudan The number of Sudanese refugees in Kenya has ranged from 20,000 to 40,000 in recent years, depending on the course of Sudan's civil war. About 40,000 were in Kenya at the end of 1997. Most lived in Kakuma refugee camp in northwest Kenya. About 4,000 Sudanese were unaccompanied children, nearly 2,000 were elderly, and 2,000 were single parents, primarily women. UNHCR conducted a census and registered 8,000 new Sudanese refugees during the year, but it was unclear whether they were new arrivals or refugees who had lived for years in Kenya unregistered. The refugees dwelled in houses designed in traditional village style, with garden plots for each household. General health conditions were satisfactory. Supplies of food and water were adequate, although aid workers expressed suspicion that some refugees were diverting food deliveries to nonrefugees. Each household received 25 pounds of firewood per month to minimize environmental damage. An extensive educational system operated in Kakuma camp. Three pre-schools served 2,500 students. Up to 17,000 children attended 20 primary schools. About 200 students attended a secondary school. Two libraries and a vocational training program also operated. Special counseling programs were available for traumatized children. Aid workers have charged that Sudanese rebel groups impose "taxes" on Sudanese occupants of Kakuma camp and that the rebels occasionally conscript young male refugees into rebel ranks. UNHCR continued to provide vehicles for police stationed at the camp. UNHCR recorded fewer than two dozen official repatriations during the year. Ethiopian and Other Refugees Some 5,000 Ethiopian refugees remained in Kenya at the end of 1997, a fraction of the 80,000 who fled there during 1991-92 to escape ethnic conflict and drought in their own country. About half of the Ethiopian refugee population lived in the Dadaab camps in eastern Kenya; the other half resided at Kakuma camp in the northwest. After repeated bureaucratic delays of more than a year, nearly 2,500 Ethiopian refugees repatriated by air from Kenya in 1997. The 1,000 refugees of other nationalities in Kenya included about 300 officially registered Rwandans. Up to 7,000 other Rwandans have entered Kenya in recent years, according to some reports, but Kenyan authorities have not granted them refugee status. Internal Displacement Internal displacement has occurred in two regions of Kenya, including new displacement in 1997. Politically inspired ethnic violence in western Kenya during 1991 92 uprooted an estimated 300,000 persons and left some 1,500 dead. Sporadic violence has continued in western Kenya since then, including in 1997. Local church groups, opposition political parties, and international human rights groups have accused government leaders of provoking violence in the west in order to push political opponents from their homes and secure land for supporters of Kenya's ruling party. Most uprooted families fled to local churches and schools, or into the homes of friends and relatives in other communities. UNDP operated a $20 million program to assist and resettle displaced Kenyans in western areas during 1993-95. The UNDP program encountered restrictions imposed by Kenyan officials, however, and failed to resolve underlying issues that caused the original displacement. Harassment of displaced persons, fraudulent land transfers, illegal land occupation, and pressured land sales continued in western Kenya during 1996-97, according to a mid-1997 report by Human Rights Watch. The number of people permanently resettled by UNDP's "Displaced Persons Program" remained a matter of controversy. UNDP officials estimated that their program resettled 180,000 people in the west. Kenyan NGOs and church groups alleged that far fewer people benefitted from the resettlement program because of Kenyan government manipulation. Advocacy groups estimated that thousands of families remained uprooted and apparently permanently dispossessed in western areas in 1997. Political violence in coastal areas of eastern Kenya in 1997 left some 100 persons dead and pushed tens of thousands of people from their homes at least temporarily. Thousands reportedly remained displaced at year's end, fearful that security personnel were unable or unwilling to protect them. Kenya's coastal violence erupted four months before the country's presidential election and appeared to be politically motivated, according to most neutral observers. Attackers primarily targeted Kenyans who had migrated to the coastal Mombassa area from other regions of the country, many of them seeking employment in the area's healthy tourism industry. Leaflets warned "non-native" families to return to their "ancestral homes," and attackers destroyed their houses and businesses. Uprooted families fled to churches, mosques, and hospitals, where some of them suffered further attacks.