We apologize for the delayed publication of this issue. Publication was hindered by challenges and struggles that render tenuous the very existence of free press in the Kakuma refugee camp. Indeed, without determined efforts from the entire KANERE community here and abroad we might have not come this far.

KANERE’s operations, which function on a voluntary basis, have been impeded by mounting dangers.  These dangers include:  threats to security, prolonged droughts, high mortality rates at the refugee camp hospital and violent conflict within the camp.  The usually short rain season, for example, has intensified famine for the livestock of local pastoralists in Turkana. Inside the camp, however, flooding from rainfall in May caused considerable damage to hundreds of shelters. These themes emerge repeatedly in the articles that follow.

Luckily, there is good news as well.  The KANERE community is immensely grateful to the planners who put the camp under a new address and blocking system, enhancing accessibility and directions to the camp settlement. The number of Camp and urban refugees reading KANERE daily has also gradually increased through computer and mobile phone technologies.  Our readers extend discussion of these stories with comments and contributions on our blog. We encourage readers inside and outside Kakuma to support us by telling and distributing the stories to others.

KANERE’s objective is to enable and promote the existence of civil society, currently fractured and facing many perils inside the camp. Most gravely, the forceful suppression of free press has created a self-perpetuating crisis. This censorship is experienced intimately in daily life. To be sure the stories in this issue reveal multiple powerful paradoxes that are not easily resolved. Underpinning these is the persistence of human suffering!

KANERE represents the only organized effort toward a sustainable civil society inside the Kakuma refugee camp.  We ask the standard-bearers of human rights stand with us and protect those whose rights are routinely violated in the Kakuma refugee camp. We hope that our readers enjoy the articles, and we encourage you all to make contributions to the Refugee Free Press and post comments on our stories so we can continue this lively conversation.

Signed,

KANERE Editor-in-chief

- 1951 Geneva Convection/ “Pay raise and termination targeting refugee incentive staff at Kakuma”

“As critical thinkers and journalists, we see these threats to KANERE’s operations as delegitimizing our voice. We seek a better approach for making inquiries into and achieving resolutions to KANERE’s cases with the police.”

- E.T., a member of Kanere’s Editorial Board/ “Escalating insecurity at KANERE”

“We shall have to make changes together. I want you to be the people who will transform and change your life for the better. Big responsibility lies in your hands. This tour aims to encourage all young people to speak for ourselves, for our world and for the provision of our needs,.”

- Monique Coleman in her speech at Kakuma / “Un Youth Champion visit to Kakuma”

“We have done so much together. I arrived in the camp when security was bad, when refugees were not able to sleep in their homes in peace but now they can have serenity in their homes.”

- Dr. Mohamed Qassim, UNHCR Head of Sub-Office Kakuma/ “World Refugee Day 2011”

“We are guided by laws to ask any question to any one.”

- A police officer in an interrogation of the KANERE Press Editor/ “Escalating insecurity at KANERE”

“Our shelters were made of mud and so they are in bad condition. If this rain continues for the next two days then all muddy shelter and makuti-roofed houses will be considerably damaged.”

- Mohamed Juma, a community leader in Kakuma one zone two/ “Kakuma draughts and floods”

“We used to have armed robbers attacking camp residents in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Currently the camp is free from attacks due to the collaborative work of security agencies. The camp is patrolled 24 hours to keep criminals out.”

- District Commissioner on behalf of the Ministry of State for Immigration and Registration / “World Refugee Day 2011”

“I saw a UNHCR official from community service who was adding new messages about the work of the field post on the boards and walls. Contrary to reality, that was to show visitors how things are done here for refugees.”

- M.S., a Somali refugee in block 8 zone 2/ “Un Youth Champion visit to Kakuma”

“The situation for youth is unbearable in Kakuma as most young people have dropped out of school and have become involved in risky activities and behaviors.”

- Z.M., a staff member of LWF Youth Development office / “Un Youth Champion visit to Kakuma”

“All parents wish to be paid salaries instead of incentives so they can have their children’s education paid for and can ensure that their children can access quality education that is not currently provided in the camp.”

- J.M., a health worker in Kakuma one/ “Pay raise and termination targeting refugee incentive staff at Kakuma”

“Refugees in the camp are not suffering people who ask for money. They are powerful and strong.”

- Jesper Bertelsen in an interview with KANERE journalist/ “Art on the Run”

A Rwandan refugee poses a question on the role UNHCR has played in the forced repatriation of thousands of refugees from Rwanda and on the discrimination of international protection that is afforded to this particular group of refugees.

Since the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of Rwandans who survived genocide and war crimes have sought refuge in the region. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda resulted in a mass exodus of approximately 3 million Tutsi and Hutu refugees. The majority took shelter in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). About 600,000 of them fled to Tanzania, and tens of thousands remained scattered around east and central Africa. Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire and Burundi have hosted approximately five to six million Rwandan refugees.

A handful of abandoned orphans, mostly from eastern Zaire camps, were taken in by European countries such as Italy, France, and Belgium. But they were to find only temporary relief. After the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) seized power, the new government of Rwanda put pressure on these governments to repatriate the Rwandan orphans.

The first terrible mistake made by the international community and UNHCR was the failure to distinguish genocidaires (genocide perpetrators) from genuine refugees. The impact of that tragic fiasco continues to be felt today.

The first massive forced repatriation of this group of refugees was recorded in 1996-1997. Burundi, Tanzania and Zaire were the first countries to compel these refugees to return home without regard for their fear of persecution and of probable human rights abuses back home. Gabon handcuffed refugees and put them in an airplane to Kigali in 1997. “The refugees were kept overnight inside two military aircrafts that transported them from Franceville, Gabon to the Rwandan capital, Kigali just before midnight,” stated a UNHCR press release.

The forced repatriation of Rwandan refugees continues today even as the Rwandan government is known for violently cracking down on opposition political parties. Despite the May 2009 Kampala Summit, at which Heads of State and the UNHCR High Commissioner affirmed the need to protect refugees and IDPs, a few months later the Ugandan government forcibly put refugees in trucks and drove them to Rwanda on the pretext of food rationing.

A survivor told a KANERE journalist that Rwanda security forces had reached the camp of Nakivala to prepare for this event. “I know Rwandan forces were involved in the operation,” said a mother whose family members were taken to Rwanda on July 18, 2010, in what the Ugandan government characterizes as routine deportation of illegal Rwandan immigrants.

UNHCR serves Rwandan government interest rather than refugees

The Rwandan refugees who were forced to leave UNHCR-run camps harbor intense fear about the independence and integrity of the UN refugee agency. Among the thousands of repatriated refugees are those who qualified for international protection; yet none of them were spared from the forced repatriation operation. “Ogata is right when she says that ‘humanitarian action [cannot] substitute for the necessary exercise of political will to solve the underlying causes of the conflict. But when necessary, UNHCR has been all too ready to do dirty work for funding states,” says Barbara Harrell-Bond in her TLS May 2006 review of Sadako Ogata’s book The Turbulent Decade.

Western countries have lent credence to the Kigali government allegations that the majority of 1994 refugees participated in the genocide, thus depriving them of their rights for refugee protection. The failure to distinguish genocidaires from genuine refugees, has led to refugees, especially Hutus, being treated as criminals. The Rwandan government continues to claim that all refugees should return and that those who refuse have things to hide.

Tutsi refugees have often been labeled as either traitors or thieves who not unlike the Hutus flee justice even in the absence of evidence for their claims. As a result, the international community has turned a blind eye to the mistreatment of these refugees. Actions, like forced repatriation, which deny the rights of refugees are pursued with the acquiescence of the UN.

When refugees are asked to comment on current Kigali governance and the praises the country has received in the past decade, their comments are often marked by uncertainty about these changes. ‘The international community is busy with the perceived development in Rwanda happening at the expenses of true democracy and justice.  ‘Democracy that kills innocent citizens and fabricates reasons to justify murder simply draws people back into past centuries. Development does not benefit all,” said a refugee in the Kakuma camp.

Thousands of Rwandan refugees are still in need of international protection. Sadly, the government in Rwanda has already killed or made attempts to kill many of them, either in the camps or in the towns where they are hosted in Congo, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa and a number of Europeans states.

In the Kakuma camp, refugee communities from the Great Lakes region have been profiled for possible resettlement into third countries. Rwandan refugees were denied this opportunity with no explanation. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the hunt for Rwandans in the forest continues. Thousands of these refugees were reported to have been handed over to the Kigali government. The Rwandan government also seeks information about refugees who have integrated in local communities in DRC or elsewhere in the region as well as about refugees who have resettled to third countries. The official story always states that refugees repatriated voluntarily.

16 years have passed since the genocide in Rwanda. UNHCR is drafting a document which will result in the application of the ‘UNHCR Cessassion Clause’[1] to all Rwandans refugees by December 2011. This decision amounts to failure to protect and promote refugee rights. Thousands of Rwandan refugees who fear persecution upon return to Rwanda are waiting to see what the international community will do for vulnerable Rwandan refugees.

On November 11^th, 2009, the KANERE Press Editor was assaulted by three men whom he knew well. The assault ensued after he used a camera to take pictures of the fence that was burning around his house, located in camp residential plots. His case file, however, was destroyed by a police officer who is well known to KANERE. The case was not originally taken to court. No substantial response was provided upon follow-up from the editor. In one occasion in late 2010, a police inspector described KANERE journalists as “Spies in Kakuma.” Two other KANERE journalists filed complaints with the Officer Commanding Station (O.C.S) about similar threats and harassment. Yet O.C.S stated that the inspector was angry with journalists because he was mentioned in damaging reports published by KANERE. These reports detailed the increase in police abuse. The police inspector ultimately used his official power to completely destroy the case documents. The editor’s case was delayed until it was presented in court in March 2011 in a diluted and weakened form.

Another assault was attempted at the editor’s house in the camp settlement on February 11^th, 2010. The disturbance transpired when two KANERE journalists were in an official meeting with UNHCR staff discussing documentary films. Justice was delayed once again. The case was taken to court on March 24^th, 2010 after UNHCR had already resettled one of the suspects. KANERE’s inquiries on the case were thwarted when a police officer at the station reported predictably that the “case file is missing.” One of the journalists was advised to file another statement and open a new police file. Court proceedings were inevitably delayed, and the attempted assault was recently presented to court as a minor case. KANERE relentlessly pursued the circumstances under which the file “went missing” even though the police officers originally in charge of the case had already been transferred to another station.

Thousands of case records tracing back decades ago are available, but not KANERE’s case file from only a year ago. How this file went missing remains unanswered. KANERE journalists have come to believe that our existence is being systematically delegitimized as powerful and decision-making bodies are opposed to KANERE’s operation as an NGO. The safety of journalists continues to be in jeopardy.

The war you don’t see. 

KANERE was successful in lobbying for the arrest of one of the perpetrators, who was arrested on March 24^th, 2011. Two hours after the suspect was taken to court, the editor received threats via mobile from his assailant in Australia. “If you don’t release her, we will make sure you are dead! Just wait, distance don’t matter, we can use any means and methods,” said the phone message. The death threats came from two mobile numbers: +61402667720 at 11:39 hrs- 00:02:23, 2 and +61421374538 at 11:49hrs- 00:04:27 local Kenya time. The phone death threats were witnessed by a staff member of an NGO in the compound who immediately emailed UNHCR Protection asking for better protection for the victim.

Early that morning three individuals who oppose freedom of press for KANERE went to UNHCR to ask for the release of the accused. The UNHCR protection official became involved by speaking to court officials. Eye witnesses told KANERE that these three individuals were allowed through the UNHCR main gate and talked with the officials in the unit for a long time. “We saw the trio. They were asking for withdrawal. The protection official talked to somebody in Lodwar about this matter,” Said Shama Tusaka, an Ethiopian waiting on the eligibility test.

It is unclear why UNHCR Kakuma has resettled a suspect in an active case before the Kakuma Resident Magistrate Court. This same suspect threatened the KANERE editor when his colleague was arrested. He was relocated to Australia and is currently funding groups that harass KANERE journalists. Camp governors stood in the sidelines watching the events unfold.

Neither the police nor UNHCR have responded to reports of death threats. According to a reliable, anonymous source, officials from the UNHCR Protection and the Security departments have made inquiries into KANERE’s cases following the alarm raised by KANERE supporters. KANERE has yet to be contacted, but the KANERE Editor was summoned to the police station a day after the UNHCR officials contacted the police.  “As critical thinkers and journalists, we see these threats to KANERE’s operations as delegitimizing our voice. We seek a better approach for making inquiries into and achieving resolutions to KANERE’s cases with the police,” said a member of KANERE’s Editorial Board.

The case of the death threats is not a singular incident. Similar episodes have been carried out by a few refugees in specific communities. Some leaders within the Oromo community, for example, have written false accusations against KANERE officials to several humanitarian agencies and to the police. Only one group within a small community was made to believe that the free press is jeopardizing their resettlement opportunities. KANERE has established good relationships and gained support from leaders representing communities from all nationalities in Kakuma.

After being summoned to the Kakuma police station on May 2^nd, 2011, the KANERE Press Editor called UNHCR and the Department for Refugee Affairs (DRA) for help. Although UNHCR and DRA staff were concerned about the matter, they could not block the police summon despite the numerous complaints the editor had submitted to these offices. He was advised by an UNHCR Protection official not to respond to any of the police summons. That afternoon, the editor was accompanied to the police station by two prominent refugee community leaders, a sheikh and another KANERE journalist. The editor was interrogated for about 30 minutes. He was not given a clear answer upon asking why he was being interrogated. “We are guided by laws to ask any question to anyone,” said a police officer during the interrogation.

Although insecurity has intensified, it is not new. In the past we reported the death of a journalist from Kakuma News Bulleting (KANEBU). Mr. Stephen was killed at night by gunshot in July 2008. He was also a secondary school teacher of history at the now closed Bor-town Secondary School.  He was loved by refugees, who had nicknamed him “Comrade.” He, too, received threats before being killed at his residential house in Kakuma one. There was no official response following his death. After his burial, there was no formal investigation of his death. UNHCR was only able to provide resettlement for the family of the deceased.

KANERE has identified possible suspects in cases involving journalists between 2010 and 2011. The two KANERE journalists who were attacked left Kakuma due to lack of protection to find safety and security elsewhere. One of them was a Darfurian journalist and the other a former student at Makerere University in Uganda. Kenya hosts over 350,000 refugees. Decision-making on migrants and refugee affairs should be transparent and should provide better protection. The existence of the refugee humanitarian mode of power should not only involve dispensing large sums of money. It requires monitoring. It requires defining what is protection and what is moral. In this capacity, freedom of speech and freedom of press for KANERE is imperative for revealing the inside of the refugee warehouse.

Refugee staff layoffs continued even as workload increased in response to the Annual Operation Review (AOR) recommendations.  In Kakuma, camp refugees hold an estimated 90% of jobs in humanitarian agencies. They earn monthly “incentives,” payments ranging between from 2,500 to 7,500 Kenyan Shillings irrespective of their levels of education or their position titles. The refugees believe that they are exploited by the camp governing powers that determine their pay.

The 1951 Convention refers to specific economic and social rights to which refugees are entitled, including the right to gainful employment and education. The Convention also says that refugees are to be accorded the same treatment as nationals with respect to rationing system and public relief and assistance (Articles. 20 and 23).

The untold story of refugee labor in Kakuma reveals violations of international and national labor laws. Employed refugees go through a process of recruitment that assesses their qualifications but does not allow for salary negotiations.  In Kakuma, the incentives are nominal cash payments of about 40–90USD per month. The incentives were determined by all agencies under the guidance of UNHCR. Different amounts were set for different refugee staff positions.

The Annual Operation Review (AOR) conducted in August 2010 in Kakuma refugee camp recommended that incentives be increased. Many refugees have confirmed that there have been no real increases, however. “What happened was that they terminated many of our colleagues and gave us the money saved through these cutbacks. But the workload has doubled,” said a refugee staff working for incentives in the health sector.  The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) terminated the largest number of incentive-based staff members. The organizations did not reduce production in the aftermath of layoffs.

Attempts in 2010 by refugee workers to go on strike against exploitative payment schemes failed. NGO incentive-based workers leave their households before 7:00 am without breakfast and are expected to work until 1:00 pm. Energy levels are low. This partly explains why the education sector consistently underperforms year after year. “This is what they call free education,” said a health worker in Kakuma one. “All parents wish to be paid salaries instead of incentives so they can have their children’s education paid for and can ensure that their children can access quality education that is not currently provided in the camp,” he added.

Food prices in the market have risen, and the devaluation of the Kenyan currency has made life in the camp even more difficult. A soda that used to be sold for 25 Ksh in the nearby town of Kitale is sold today for 60 Ksh. A bus ticket from Kakuma to Nairobi today is 2,500 ksh as opposed to 1,200 ksh charged over the past 3 years. A significant number of Kakuma inhabitants take two or three buses to Kenyan cities on a daily basis. Refugees cited inflation extensively during the Annual Operation Review. UNHCR accepted the recommendation for an increase in the incentive and pay structure to match the levels at the Dadaab refugee camp.

Refugees who visited Dadaab in 2010 reported that there are still disparities in the incentive levels between the two camps. A counterpart manager in Daadaab earns between 5,000 ksh and 10,000 ksh. UNHCR has limited the maximum level of pay for the same position in Kakuma to 7,500ksh. It is unclear who set up the policy of Dadaab and who set up the one for Kakuma. It is also unclear what the justification is for the difference in pay.

The UNHCR working document on harmonized incentives scales in Kakuma will be adopted in 2011. The document has outlined six levels of incentive-based staff. Level one includes workers from Chairman-bench in court to youth workers. These workers receive the least money.  Level two includes administrative assistants and vector control assistants. These workers are paid a monthly incentive of 3,000 ksh.  Level three is assigned to assistant supervisors and vector assistant supervisors, who are paid 3,500 ksh. Level four includes accountants and trainer supervisors who receive about 4,000 ksh.  Level five is assigned to administrative data entry clerks, office assistants, and training deputy head teachers, who earn 5,500 ksh.  The highest level is the sixth, which includes refugee counterpart managers earning the maximum of 7,500 ksh.

In Kenya, nurses, teachers, drivers, and midwives earn an average salary of 50,000 ksh. Officers in different NGOs earn 100,000ksh, while NGO managers earn 200,000 ksh and above. They receive insurance, accommodations and meals for themselves and their immediate family members.

A refugee security guard is paid 2,500 Kenyan shillings.  Many refugees have no employment options in the camp since their movement is restricted. And the Kenyan government has not issued the work permits inside the camp. Refugees believe that incentives are a waste. “I am afraid I will never inherit anything from my parents,” said a 19 year-old boy born in the camp. The elderly who are coming to a retirement age have no savings. They are apprehensive and full of sorrow about their futures. According to the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the right to work is defined as the right ‘of everyone to access the opportunity to gain his living by work which he freely chooses or accepts’ (Article 6).  This outlines the obligations the humanitarian mode of assistance has toward refugees living in restricted quarters.

Many refugees have no hope of returning to their countries due to the circumstances which forced them to flee. Although their governments often call for their repatriation, their personal safety is in jeopardy.  Their children do not know their ancestral land.  Many cannot even speak their mother tongue.  The elderly worry that they will leave no memories to their children. They believe their children are wasting away in the refugee camp even as they qualify to be Kenyan citizens by birth.

KANERE fully supports the theme of this year’s World Refugee Day.  Hope is especially pertinent in protracted refugee situations. This day is dedicated to the millions of refugees and other forcibly displaced migrants in confined settlements or camped societies.

Kakuma commemorated the day on Saturday June 18^th, 2011 with colorful skits, dances, plays and live bands from refugees and the host community. Officials from humanitarian agencies and government representatives delivered powerful speeches at Napata grounds in Kakuma 1 zone 2. Skits from refugees did acknowledge the vulnerability and hopelessness of social life in the camp. But they also emphasized that no matter how meaningless existence might feel at times many refugees still have hope and courage.

UNHCR launched the “Do 1 Thing” campaign in support of world refugee day. This initiative aims to foster and encourage support for World Refugee Day worldwide. Underlying these generalized goals is the expectation that refugees do one thing for themselves here in the camp. For thousands of refugees and asylum seekers, however, hope has died due to years of extreme vulnerability. The talent of individual refugees has not been nurtured. Indeed, refugees are discouraged from earning a livelihood without permits. And young people are rarely taught the skills to do so in the camp education system. Even though voluntary repatriation is only possible for Sudanese and Rwandan refugees in the camp, the Kenyan government is appealing the international community to reduce the number of the refugees it hosts.

Conflict in Somalia has left thousands dead and displaced millions to countries the world over.  Kenya hosts the most refugees from the region.  Over 10,000 asylum seekers cross its borders to seek safety and protection. Most of them are from war torn Somalia, the Great lakes regions, Sudan and Ethiopia. Dr. Mohamed Qassim, the UNHCR Head of Sub-Office in Kakuma, gave a speech addressing the conflict in Libya that is currently displacing a large number of people. Only 2% are estimated to go to Europe, with most fleeing for safety to other parts of the region. Many of these refugees are children. In fact, about 31% of asylum seekers globally are under 18 years of age.

The speech by the UNHCR Head of Sub-Office also highlighted some of the progress made during Dr. Qassim’s term, which ends this year in July. Over the past three years, Dr Qassim prioritized security as the cornerstone to improving programme implementation.  “We have done so much together. I arrived in the camp when security was bad, when refugees were not able to sleep in their homes in peace but now they can have serenity in their homes,” said Dr. Mohamed Qassim in his speech. “As repatriation scales down, refugees and new arrivals expect programmes focused on service delivery,” he added.

The District Commissioner of Kakuma read a speech on behalf of the Honorable Minister of Ministry of State for Immigration and Registration. The District Commissioner praised the good relations between refugees and the host community that have developed over the past two years. The speech also emphasized the role of the Kenyan government in providing security and protection for refugees. “We used to have armed robbers attacking camp residents in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Currently the camp is free from attacks due to the collaborative work of security agencies. The camp is patrolled 24 hours to keep criminals out,” said the District Commissioner. “Kenya is providing asylum in accordance to international standards. The government also maintains law and order in the camps,” he added.

World Refugee Day 2011 - Napata Grounds

The Kakuma Camp Manager also presented a speech on behalf of the Ag. Commissioner for the Department of Refugee Affairs (DRA). The speech noted that DRA has started the registration of refugees and asylum seekers and urged camp inhabitants to comply with the guidelines of the Kenyan Refugee Act of 2006. The Camp Manager stressed that “refugees are real people.”

The Dadaab refugee camp, designed to host 90,000 refugees, actually accommodates 355,000. It is the largest refugee warehouse in the world and is followed by the Kakuma refugee camp, which hosts 82,409. Other refugee populations are distributed in urban centers. The Kenyan Department of Refugee Affairs has taken over refugee registration from UNHCR in an attempt to play a bigger role in the governance of refugees within its territory. These forms of governance had been left to UNHCR for over 21 years. Kenya hosts about half a million refugees and has accepted the international obligation of admitting and offering protection to refugees. Kenya is a signatory to the 1951 Geneva Convention, the 1967 Protocol and 1969 Organization of African Union Convention, which have been domesticated into national law, and especially into the Refugee Act of 2006.

City News

On World Refugee Day 2011, refugees held protests against police harassment in Nairobi. Peaceful demonstrations were held in the Eastleigh, Umoja and Kasarani areas of Nairobi to protest neglect by the government. Many refugees who live in urban centers of Kenya spoke with KANERE about the demonstrations in the Eastleigh area. “We are frequently arrested in these towns. They don’t care about our documents… We must bribe to survive,” said an anonymous refugee resident of Eastleigh.

Kituo Cha Sheria and the International Rescue Committee peace caravan conducted a road show in Eastleigh to promote awareness of the challenges urban refugees face. Kituo Cha Sheria has also been providing legal support to refugees and asylum seekers in urban Kenya.

When the situations in their countries of origin change all refugees will want to return home despite the corruption and poverty documented in many countries in Africa. Globally over 10 million refugees want nothing more than to go home. The lack of foreseeable durable solutions, however, remains one of the key challenges for refugees in Kenya and in the world at large.

Art on the Run is a project supported by the Danish Centre for Culture and Development. Danish artists arrived in Kakuma on March 21^st and left on April 6^th, 2011. During their stay, the Art on the Run team shared their experiences with a welcoming and enthusiastic refugee community. The artists met with KANERE journalists, artists, refugees and humanitarian Agencies

Our project is about art and identity. We hope to describe the lives of artists in the refugee camp and to initiate a dialogue between the Danish art audience and those creating art under impossible conditions. We identified a number of talented visual artists living in the camp, and we have proposed that they produce paintings for an exhibition in Denmark later this year. Art on the Run will promote awareness about living conditions in the camp. We want to also emphasize the strength and resourcefulness of refugees.

Living in a refugee camp like Kakuma is hard. Burning heat, dust and sand are often unbearable. Most important, the people who inhabit the camp have experienced traumatic events in the process of escaping their home countries. Most have lost relatives. A large number of the refugees in the camp are unaccompanied children who have to cope with the loss of their parents. Yet there is also much beauty and warmth in Kakuma. During our stay we became familiar with the camp, walking around, visiting people and listening to stories. We are extremely impressed not only with the hospitality of refugees but also with their ability and determination to preserve their culture.

Refugees are not only victims. They are people with amazing potential for the future. Some have even produced art to cope with the harsh conditions of their daily lives. Their art will be on exhibit along with photos and portraits of the artists themselves in November. The exhibit will reveal the role art plays in the lives of refugee artists who live in the camp and also struggle to maintain their personal and artistic identity. We seek to investigate the role that art and artists play in strengthening the hope and will power of people living away from their homeland.

To do this, we have invited a number of artists living in the Kakuma refugee camp to take part in the project. “Refugees in the camp are not suffering people who ask for money. They are powerful and strong,” said Jesper Bertelsen in an interview with KANERE journalists.  The artists will have their own personal profile on the internet gallery. We think this will be the first fair-trade approved art gallery supporting artists in developing countries.

Art on the Run will be promoted in Denmark in December through traditional posters, Go-cards and articles in the media. We hope this will attract the attention of a greater audience, thereby generating more widespread interest in the arts and conditions of the camp. We hope, too, that Art on the Run will succeed in raising funds for the project to return to Kakuma yearly to facilitate workshops and exhibitions for young talented artists – maybe even with the participation of Danish volunteers.

Lastly, we want to thank the Kakuma News Reflector – (KANERE) for their generous welcome and hospitality at the camp. We learnt a lot from KANERE and we encourage readers to support the KANERE initiative.

To follow future exhibitions in Denmark and awareness efforts about the living conditions in the camp, visit us on our website: www.artontherun.dk

Ms. Coleman traveled with a UNHCR delegation and arrived at Kakuma at about 10:17 am on Sunday May 1^st, 2011. She was received by UNHCR staff members and other officials at Kakuma air strip before being driven to the UNHCR premise. During her stay in Kenya, the young American actress visited many places and reached Kakuma on May 5^th for a two-day mission in the Kakuma camp and surrounding areas. Ms. Coleman traveled to Lodwar District where she visited a sanitary project and a refugee school for girls near Kalemchuch Hill.

The actress is on a world tour, which she started in January 2011 to raise funds in response to challenges facing young people across the world. Under the scope of the International Year of Youth, her aim was to raise awareness about problems that face young people in general across the continent. International Year of Youth was launched in Kenya in August 2010 by the United Nations and the Ministry of Youth in collaboration with youth support organizations. In Kakuma refugee camp, youth affairs are run by the LWF Youth and Development office. The office engages youth in recreational activities related to culture, drama, debating and provision of sports and sport equipment.

The office, however, has not yet institutionalized ways to address more serious challenges like unemployment, poverty, drug and substances abuse, and reproductive health issues. “The situation for youth is unbearable in Kakuma as most young people have dropped out of school and have become involved in risky activities and behaviors,” said a staff member in the LWF Youth Development office in an interview with KANERE.

The UN youth champion showed great interest in meeting youth groups, CBOs and humanitarian agencies. She displayed warm feelings toward the numerous souls warehoused in camps across East Africa. She witnessed firsthand refugee warehousing at Kakuma camp. Despite her limited time, she visited the camp around the Main Kakuma 1 market toward the UNHCR field post one and three, taking pictures over the slightly tinted screen of UNHCR convoys.

She also visited the youth sport centre in Kakuma 1. There, she learned about refugee complaints and claims displayed on pamphlet messages on notice boards at field posts across the camp. According to refugee staff members, however, UNHCR changed the notices on the boards. “After it was announced that the delegation would visit the field post in the afternoon, I read new messages that were tacked on the notice boards to display adherence to procedures for handling complaints,” said a staff from LWF Peace Building and resolution unit. Another eye witness, a Somali in block 8 zone 2, added that he “saw a UNHCR official from community service who was adding new messages about the work of the field post on the boards and walls. Contrary to reality, that was to show visitors how things are done here for refugees.”

Ms Coleman, whose work on behalf of youth is passionate, was excited to see positive aspects of camp life. During the meetings and interactions with young people at Kakuma, she patiently heard about the needs of refugees and local youth. She gave warm smiles of promise as she listened to the voice of the voiceless cry out of the camp. “We identified Ms. Monique as a giver of voice. She is a smart youth organizer, prompting young people to be actors for development and positive social changes,” said a KANERE reader.

She urged young people to become instruments for change. “We shall have to make changes together. I want you to be the people who will transform and change your life for the better. Big responsibility lies in your hands. This tour aims to encourage all young people to speak for ourselves, for our world and for the provision of our needs,” said Ms. Coleman in a speech addressing Kakuma. Her tour will continue to Uganda, South Africa, Europe and South America to promote the UN International Year of Youth, launched on August 12^th, 2010 and running through August 11^th, 2011. The primary goal is to advance the participation of young people in global, regional and national issues that affect youth everywhere.

Introduction: Uncovering Voice

In the book What is the What? author David Eggers gives voice to Valentino Achak Deng, who escaped violence in his village of Marial Bai and joined the walking boys in a journey from the southern Sudan, to asylum in Ethiopia and Kenya, and eventually to third country resettlement in the United States.  The novelized memoir, written as a litany that moves between the challenges of his new life in the United States and the perils of displacement, flight and encampment, serves to also bring the reader into places remote and foreign to Westerners: specifically, the refugee camp.  Much of Valentino’s formative years were spent in camps — first at Pinyudo, a makeshift camp along the Gilo River in Ethiopia and later at Kakuma, a UNHCR site where he was officially registered as a refugee.

Valentino’s stories about camp life reveal a civil society fractured by the trauma of displacement and the uncertainty of a future, yet engaged daily in the processes of negotiating resources and rules necessary for survival.  Even as a youth, Valentino had opportunities to find mentors, develop leadership skills, and cultivate aspirations for his life as a resident of the camp.  However, the camp environment posed an obstacle to achieving the fullness of agency.  Thus, the individual and his/her community were locked in a state of frustrated dependency. The author writes:

What was life in Kakuma? Was it life? There was debate about this. On the one hand, we were alive, which meant that we were living a life, that we were eating and could enjoy friendships and learning and could love. But we were nowhere. Kakuma was nowhere. Kukama was, we were first told, the Kenyan word for nowhere. No matter the meaning of the word, the place was not a place. It was a kind of purgatory, more so than was Pinyudo, which at least had a constant river, and in other ways resembled the southern Sudan we had left. But Kakuma was hotter, windier, far more arid. There was little in the way of grass or trees in that land; there were no forests to scavenge for materials; there was nothing for miles, it seemed, so we became dependent on the UN for everything. (Eggers, 334-5)

Deng’s depiction of the Kakuma refugee camp as a “purgatory,” a liminal place where even the geographic landscape embodied desolation, captures well the human experience of being in limbo, with no access to a durable solution nor the capacity to seek resolution.  Yet despite this description, Deng’s story reveals that even in the refugee camp, individuals seek to exercise their human rights and to express a political imagination.

The purpose of this article is twofold.  First, I want to explore the perceptions of individuals residing in the Kakuma refugee camp regarding the Aid organizations operating there using the Kakuma News Reflector (KANERE) as the primary source for accessing resident’s voice.

The second purpose is to demonstrate the performance of civil society through KANERE.  The existence of KANERE reveals the persistence of agency despite the environment of dependency fostered by the camp structure.  KANERE’s Internet presence creates a portal to the world beyond the camp. KANERE has received international attention, primarily around its status as an independent news source, and the opposition it faces from humanitarian agencies.  Ironically, it is KANERE’s desire to remain wholly independent without interference from the United Nations and other aid organizations that threatens the demise of this critical refugee voice.

The Condition of Lives Caught in Protracted Conflicts

Refugees who are caught in protracted conflicts are confined to camps for extended periods where they are forced to rely upon humanitarian assistance. According to the article, “Warehousing Refugees: A Denial of Rights, a Waste of Humanity,” more than 7 million of the world’s 12 million refugees (approximately 58%) have languished for ten years or more in refugee camps.   Their lives are marked by conditions of forced idleness and military control.

The empirical data collected by international refugee agencies reveals critical details about the effects of warehousing on health and well being, and the human rights abuses inherent in them. Over time warehousing produces “pathological dependency” marked by fatalism, lack of initiative and fearfulness of speaking on one’s own behalf. The external forces that oppress populations are internalized, resulting in a deep‐seated belief in the insidious messages conveyed, directly or indirectly, by the oppressor. Ironically in situations of human warehousing, the oppressor shifts from the entities prompting flight to those designated to protect refugees from nonrefoulement.

Among the rationales for warehousing refugees are security concerns posed by refugee populations, particularly in disputed border areas;  the perceived economic burden presented by free working refugees on local markets; the infusion of relief aid associated with encampment to host countries; and the visibility that camps give to the political plights of refugee groups. These rationales do more to problematize the refugees rather than address the structural issues underlying their plight. In order to protect security and market viability, refugees are subjected to military control that does more to limit their human rights than to protect.

Bethany Ojalehto, a Fulbright scholar who lived in Kakuma for 16 months and collaborated in the launch of KANERE, writes that “the refugee camp is a commingling physical imprisonment, monotony, and environmental oppression.” Yet she contests assumptions that the psychological dependency related to the protracted refugee experience is a result of the individual’s psychology.  Rather, it is the space-time conditions of the camp that produce the sense of powerlessness.  The refugees that Ojalehto encountered in Kakuma continually exerted their agency and political will within the extreme confines of the camp.   Yet they were persistently reminded how the relentless sameness of each day imposed a barrier to their thoughts and required intentional action to counteract.

Life in Kakuma: A Profile

Kakuma Refugee Camp, located in the Turkana District of northwestern Kenya, was established in 1992 to serve Sudanese refugees who were fleeing their country. The 2004 World Refugee Survey listed Kenya’s Kakuma camp as one of “the worst examples of the long‐term warehousing of refugees”:

Kenya confines the majority of its refugees to these camps, denying the right to work and live where and how they choose. The camps are rife with human rights abuses: rape, domestic violence, and other crimes were common in the camps; traditional court systems imprisoned refugees for offenses including adultery that were not crimes under Kenyan or international law; and the local population clashed with refugees over resources like firewood.

UNHCR planning for 2011 lists among its objectives increased security within the camps, implementation of fair protection processes, improvements in the basic standards of living through livelihood opportunities and multi-storey gardening initiatives and continued coordination with the government of Kenya and its refugee-hosting communities.

Despite these efforts, life in Kakuma is difficult. The climate is semi-arid, making the area incompatible with agriculture.  Employment restrictions prevent refugees from seeking jobs outside of the camp therefore all provisions for food, medical care, personal hygiene and household management must be imported from outside the camp.  The scarcity of resources contributes to tensions between refugees and Turkana residents thereby increasing the need for armed security and strict controls over the movement of refugees.  The protracted conflict in Somalia continues to produce an unabated influx of people entering Kenya and seeking asylum, without any foreseeable chance of repatriation.

Among the many challenges facing residents of Kakuma the process of refugee status determinations (RSD) is particularly difficult.  Individuals wait indefinitely for determinations to be finalized.  After years of living in limbo, some are notified that they don’t meet the criteria for asylum and are asked to leave the country by UNHCR, which creates extreme negative impacts on the lives of asylum seekers in Kenya.

“Horrible” is a word that appears frequently in postings to KANERE about life in the camp.  Mansur Mengesha, one of the first persons to arrive in Kakuma in 1992, sardonically describes his time there as a “life workshop for me and my family.”  He goes on to say that “more than you know Kakuma is a horrible place to live. I think some of the authorities chose Kakuma not to be a living place for refugees but to serve as an eliminating chamber to finish refugees” (September 10, 2010 ).  Others address issues related to security, water scarcity, haphazard development initiatives, and programs that are cut short without explanation. The unfiltered voice of the residents and former-residents reveal impatience with their conditions of dependency, and a strong desire to make claims for their rights.

The Case of MixMe

One of the aid programs that generated significant discussion on KANERE was the MixMe program administered by the World Food Program.  MixMe is a micronutrient powder produced and donated by DSM, a global science-based company active in health, nutrition and materials and based in the Netherlands.  Product distribution was in response to the high levels of anemia and micronutrient deficiencies found in refugee camps as a result of insufficient food rations.   The MixMe packets were distributed with the monthly food rations, with each beneficiary receiving a box of 30 one-gram sachets.  The contents of the sachet are sprinkled over the food prepared in the home just before consumption.  The intended outcome is to significantly reduce the prevalence of iron-deficiency anemia among Kakuma residents.

Despite its ease of use, along with an extensive communications campaign employing film, pamphlets and plays to promote proper use of MixMe, the product was not well-received by residents.  Foremost among the questions raised by residents was why an investment was made in what appears to be a non-food product rather than local food production.

The powdery appearance of MixMe, along with the fact that it is available only in the refugee camps, raised additional concerns about the integrity of the product.  Individuals who spoke to KANERE reporters asked a variety of questions ranging from the content of the ingredients and whether these would conflict with religious dietary restrictions, to the protocol and decision making processes behind the allocation of MixMe to Kakuma refugees (and not Dadaab refugees, or consumers at local markets and shops, or among Aid staff).  Specifically residents wanted to know if MixMe was a product trial and if they were the “guinea pigs” for testing the effectiveness of the product.  These questions reflect a heightened sensitivity among residents to the vulnerability of their situation.  As this comment by a Congolese man makes clear, the need for full disclosure and consent was necessary to achieve the nutritional claims of the product:

“The way we see MixMe as refugees seems to be having a secret behind it that is not yet clear, but transparency will still come out.  Can WFP change this MixMe into locally available or locally produced food rather than bringing externally produced chemicals that are harmful to refugees who are used as laboratory animals for someone’s university research?”

The resident’s perception of MixMe as a chemical shows as well the proliferation of rumors surrounding the product roll-out.  The rumors, which included speculations that MixMe was a family planning drug, demonstrate the kind of suspicions harbored by the refugees toward Aid efforts that appear to have ulterior motives that may not be in their best interests.  As a young person from Jebel Mara Primary School asked: “People don’t want this stuff, as it has created many different perceptions among the refugees… It also has no country where it was manufactured, and the expiration date is not visible clearly. If it is good for human consumption, then even Kenyans should be able to get it or buy it in the shops, but it is not in shops. Why?” (Similarly local Turkana residents who were queried asked why they were not able to access the product since their nutritional needs and health issues were the same as the refugees.)

The refugee’s lack of choice in receiving a product perceived as exotic in a context where they are already at the mercy of political forces beyond their control catalyzed fear and mistrust. This discourse of suspicion was not unfounded.  Disenfranchised communities throughout history living within frameworks of domination and external hegemonic control have been well aware of how their vulnerability could be exploited.  Even though the World Food Program, the UNHCR, or DSM, the developers of MixMe, do not fit the ideology of dominators, they nonetheless occupy positions of power in relation to the refugees.  This power includes the capacity to feed people who are without the means to feed themselves, and who have very limited recourse for altering their circumstances without the approval and cooperation of the Aid agencies.

KANERE sought to address the questions raised by refugees by approaching World Food Program officials in the camp for answers.  Some of the questions pertaining to nutritional content were publicly available, and KANERE responded with the information in their articles on the MixMe topic.  KANERE was, however,  unable to secure a face-to-face interview.  A WFP official indicated that the organization would not provide information to KANERE until the free press was registered as a Community Based Organization (CBO).  There was no indication for why CBO status was necessary in order for an interview to occur.  Yet the decision by the organization to distance themselves from the concerns of residents reinforced the suspicions circulating about the product.

The MixMe controversy illustrates well the problematic relationship between aid organizations and the recipients of aid.  While the MixMe product may in fact be a viable resource for improving overall health in a high-risk population, the handling and delivery of aid overlooks the  participatory health model that integrates the concerns and interests of the beneficiaries into the program.  Residents already coping within the restrictions of forced dependency and diminished material conditions are now asked to use a product that is unfamiliar in appearance and content with uncertain side effects and health benefits.  Clearly the residents resisted being viewed as undifferentiated bodies available for experimentation.  Refugees demonstrated their resistance through a 70% refusal of the product, resulting in MixMe sachets littered across the camp.  Ironically the waste of MixMe sachets created a new employment opportunity for refugees who were hired to collect the discarded sachets by the World Food Program.  Presumably the incentives earned through MixMe rubbish collection was used to purchase whole food products not typically found in the food rations basket.

Preferences for Capacity-Building and Direct Encounter

A DSM designee on a fact-finding mission who visited the Kakuma camp and observed the waste of the MixMe product wrote in her blog:

Can you imagine, refugees, I repeat, refugees, who have basically nothing, going to the food distribution standing in line to pick up their ration of food, and then just leaving the boxes of MixMe there… Or worse, picking up a box, and then instead of taking it home and using it throwing the sachets up in the air, watch how they shine in the sun, and then walk away. You can probably imagine how it hurts me to see sachets lying around on the ground all over the camp.

 The author struggled with how to convey her observations, concluding that she needed to respect the views of the users despite her initial astonishment at having the great product like MixMe turned away:

I am so convinced that it is good for them, and I watch them struggle to survive even, and for a short moment I felt like they do not want to accept our help. But this is not the way to look at it. Apparently the product does not serve their direct needs. All we can do is respect that, and think of ways to make it attractive to them, either in product form, communication, or anything else we can think of.

Even as she grappled with the recognition of refugee’s concerns, the subtext of the MixMe designee was clear:  the refugees need to be convinced that the product was something they should use, that their concerns—while important to note—were somehow based in misinformation or camp politics rather than the residents’ self-determination of what they wanted to address health and nutritional concerns.

From a Western perspective, refugee resistance might be construed as ungratefulness.  Yet a careful reading of KANERE proves otherwise.   Gratitude is woven throughout the comments posted to the blog, even in messages that are critical of camp operations and the discomforts of the environment.  Frequently expressions of appreciation mingle with comments on the importance of helping one another and developing one’s capacities through aid organizations, even as complaints are made about heavy-handed security, lack of organizational transparency or communication about decisions made by nongovernmental organizations. In my interpretation, the theme of gratefulness suggests not only a generosity of human spirit and resilience, but also an insight into the complexity of negotiating asylum. The context for gratefulness is generally connected to human development, whether the development occurs through an engagement across communities and cultures through interaction with particular aid organizations or by access to established structures that guarantee protections and rights.  KANERE Editors cite several organizations that do a better job of promoting human rights through their work — namely, the Refugee Consortium Kenya (RCK), which has provided legal assistance and advocacy for refugees and asylum seekers before and since passage of the Refugee Act in Kenya in 2006, and the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), which conducted livelihood and income generating activities for women and girls surviving sexual and gender based violence.  KANERE’s observations paralleled my own research uncovering the transformative potential of encampment in situations where refugee’s encounter with Aid workers presented them with new opportunities that were unavailable in their prior circumstances. What was unique about these encounters, though, was not the provision of assistance so much as the respect and recognition gained through the interactions and the subsequent collaborations that followed.

The future of KANERE

The discourse of suspicion characterizing the MixMe controversy provides valuable insight into the critical relations between Kakuma refugees and the aid organization operating in the camp.   As a case study of resistance within a framework of domination and control, the MixMe controversy demonstrates the enactment of agency that disrupts existing relations and forces new models of engagement.  Yet an important third actor in the MixMe resistance is KANERE.  As a free press that is committed to documenting and amplifying the unmediated voices of refugees, KANERE provides a politicized space for the production of civil society within the highly regulated environment of the refugee camp.   It operates as a place where refugees can speak directly to various publics, including the aid agencies, about their experiences.

KANERE is not the first effort to operate a refugee press.  From 1993-2005, the United Nations ran the Kakuma News Bulletin (KANEBU), which functioned as a newsletter to share information about events occurring throughout the camp.  While KANEBU employed refugee journalists in writing articles for the newsletter, the local UNHCR unit retained editorial control of what was actually published.  KANERE, as a free press, aims not merely to inform but also “to counter the monopoly of information enjoyed by humanitarian organizations that largely control access to and information about refugee camps.”  KANERE’s independence from the Aid organizations thus marks a departure from existing constructs of refugee life during encampment.

KANERE’S decision to maintain itself as a free press was not without grave risks.  Soon after its initial publications, objections were raised by UNHCR about its lack of participation, citing concerns over confidentiality, protection of identities of people living in the camp and ethical standards of reporting.  In response, KANERE’s editors stopped providing article by-lines and using the full names of residents, and removed some sensitive articles from its web blog.  Even after taking these actions, KANERE journalists cited incidents of intimidation.  The editor was assaulted and his house destroyed.  Other journalist were interrogated and threatened with deportation.  Some feared that their status determinations were in jeopardy because of their association with the Free Press.  Even the American Fulbright scholar, Ojalehito, who collaborated in the launch of KANERE, was told that her work on KANERE was not relevant to her research and therefore could lose her housing through the Lutheran World Federation.  The climate of fear cultivated by these tactics led some journalists to distance themselves from KANERE, choosing instead to either establish better relationships with UNHCR and other NGO’s or to speak out against KANERE.

KANERE made modest headway in its negotiations with UNHCR after international human rights lawyer Dr. Ekuru Aukot visited Kakuma and prepared a document responding to the question of whether refugees in Kenya have the right to a free press.  Aukot’s article appealed to various ratified legal documents including the Refugees Act of 2006 and the Constitution of Kenya to clarify that refugees enjoy the right to freedom of expression through a free press, provided they follow the ethical standards for journalism.  He wrote:

No one should see KANERE as threatening, for example, the security of Kenya, for that is often what typical bureaucrats would argue.  There are more worrying and pressing things in Kenya at the moment than to worry about the freedom of individuals to speak out, whether exercised by refugees or Kenyans.

In view of Aukot’s solid argument on behalf of KANERE, the local UNHCR unit agreed to provide the letter of support needed for KANERE to proceed with its application for CBO recognition.  But, its support remained conditional on its involvement, arguing that the free press couldn’t be purely independent if it was receiving relief funds.

As of this writing, KANERE continues to function precariously.  Free or affordable Internet access is irregular. Journalists continue to work on a voluntary basis, often facing intimidation.  Local authorities and camp governance appear reluctant to provide the necessary protections for the journalists against their detractors.  Despite these difficulties KANERE prevails.  According to the Humanitarian Futures Programme blog, KANERE “is an absolutely fantastic example of citizen journalism, empowered by the web, completely changing the game of humanitarian business” with the potential to catalyze “the next stage of growth for the aid industry.” As was evident with the MixMe case study, information is critical in empowering people to act in their own best, collective interests. Freedom to access, produce and circulate accurate information is foundational to creating open, civil society.

How can the Western world help?  To fully address this question is beyond the scope of this article.  We can nevertheless identify some preliminary efforts.  The Internet brings the distant near, closing the information gap between spaces as divergent as a university in Southwest Virginia and Kakuma’s cyber café.  As intellectuals we can promote free thought and expression through our vast networks of professional societies, disciplinary listservs and more by telling the story of KANERE.  As persons concerned about international development, we can advocate that aid dollars be directed toward initiatives that foster the infrastructures needed for functioning civil societies.  As scholars and practitioners addressing the global dilemma of forced migration, we can incorporate the marginalized work of refugee journalists into the mainstream of knowledge production that guides our research and praxis.  Finally as global citizens engaged in the human rights discourse, we must recognize that full humanity includes not only the basics of survival—food, water, shelter, protection from harm—but also conversation, self-expression and shared meaning.

Will this article make a difference in the struggle for human rights faced by refugees living in Kakuma and beyond?  This remains to be seen.  What it will do, I hope, is to contribute to the political imagination of people living in Nowhere who are claiming their place as citizens of the world.

The desert locality in which the camp settlement is situated is characterized strong heat radiation. Rainfall does not occur in predictable routines. When it does rain, it begins with dust storms and is followed by intensely hot sun. Rainfall often occurs suddenly, however, interrupting normal activities. The Tarach river can overflow to its banks even if rainfall is occurring nowhere near Kakuma. This combined with droughts at Kakuma proper can cause many problems, including property damage and an increase in famine mortality.

The first rainfall this year did not start until April 28^th, 2011. The Great Rift Valley was flooded due to heavy downpour. Several flights and other transportation means from Lodwar to Lokichoggio and back were cancelled as the Kwalase river at Lodwar and other streams on the way to Lokichoggio were overflowing. A local Turkana girl who was tending to the goats and sheep slid from the bank of the Lotimo stream – about 1 km from Kakuma. As a result of this rain hundreds of temporary and muddy walls at the refugee camp were damaged. “Our shelters were made of mud and so they are in bad condition. If this rain continues for the next two days then all muddy shelter and makuti-roofed houses will be considerably damaged,” said Mohamed Juma, a community leader in Kakuma One in Zone Two. The shelter provision of UNHCR states that assessment is going on and that shelters that were damaged across the camp settlement need repairs.  “It will be considered as soon as possible within the influx of spontaneous new arrivals to the camp,” said a staff member in the unit.

It was, on the other hand, a good day for the youngsters who could be found playing in the water in their uniforms.  Yet this water posed new health hazards for the children who could more easily fall into the dirty garbage pits. Many camp zones have accumulated pools of dirty water. Such water remains stagnant for a long period of time becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes that spread malaria. Some of the holes that collect pools of water have come about due to environmental degradation resulting from brick-making. Brick-making has emerged as an alternative form of livelihood for refugees who are not allowed to harvest fire wood or to cut down trees to make charcoal outside the areas demarcated for refugees in the camp settlement. This remains the only option some refugees have for buying food beyond their food ration basket.

The straight avenues
full of tourists
in their unique attire
the lovely city of the free
of culture and history
adored and recognized world wide
how i long to live in this place
a secure place to live

I will be free like a bird in the air
away from harsh dictatorial laws of man
the Jubba my hope
the symbol of the legacy i left
meandering through the country
like a snake in the trees
hosting every animal and plant in its way
irrigating nature along its course
quenching all intellectuals to its grave yard
how i long to conquer the warfare
a secure place to live.

Rights have escaped
not seen for two decades
exposure raised worries
intellectuals in dilemma
justice denied

Rules of mankind
to make decision on
another man
no perfect obligation
killing other humans
accountability fades
justice denied.