Review of 2009 in Kenya on Protection of Refugees

Report by US Department of State
The law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee status in accordance with the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, its 1967 Protocol, and the 1969 Organization of African Unity Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of the Refugee Problem in Africa. The country is a signatory of this convention. Its laws minimally provide for the granting of asylum or refugee status, and the government has established a system for providing protection to some refugees.
The government provided some protection against the expulsion or return of refugees to countries where their lives or freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. However, there were reports of forcible returns of Somali asylum seekers throughout the year; the Kenya-Somalia border remained officially closed, preventing asylum seekers from legally entering Kenya. Somali asylum seekers reportedly paid approximately 7,500–15,000 shillings ($100- $200) per family in bribes and transportation costs to travel from the Kenya-Somalia border to the Dadaab refugee camps.
During the year international donors initiated a program to transfer the responsibility of registering all asylum seekers and determining refugee status from the UNHCR to the government. The government also registered refugees in Dadaab camps, located in the northeastern part of the country; however, many refugees had not received their identification documents by year's end.
The government permitted the UNHCR to register and assist new arrivals who successfully made their way to one of the three Dadaab refugee camps. The UNHCR registered more than 59,000 new arrivals in the Dadaab camps between January and the end of November, increasing the camp size to more than 266,000 (the three camps were designed to accommodate 90,000 refugees). In August the UNHCR requested government permission to build a fourth camp in Dadaab due to severe overcrowding; however, as of year's end the government had not responded. Between August and October the International Organization for Migration (IOM) transported more than 13,000 newly arrived Somali refugees from the Dadaab camps to the Kakuma camps to minimize overcrowding.
The UNHCR stopped providing newly arrived refugees with plots in the Dadaab camps, restricting assistance to limited nonfood items (plastic sheeting and cooking utensils) and instructions to locate clan members or search for accommodations in Dadaab refugee camp. Cholera, meningitis, H1N1, and measles outbreaks were all reported in Dadaab. Many new refugees reportedly were bypassing Dadaab camps because of the conditions and continued directly to the Kakuma camp or on to Nairobi.
Despite the policy that all refugees must reside in camps (encampment policy), slightly more than 45,000 refugees were registered in Nairobi as of December; however, the UNHCR provided assistance to these refugees only in exceptional cases. Unofficially, the UNHCR and NGOs estimated that more than 100,000 refugees resided in Nairobi. The government did not provide opportunities for local integration; however, it worked closely with the UNHCR in facilitating refugee resettlement to other countries.
Security concerns, including rape, banditry, and shooting, remained problems at both Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps. Health and social workers at the camps reported that due to strong rape awareness programs, victims increasingly reported such incidents, resulting in improved access to counseling. During the year approximately 249 crimes were reported in Kakuma refugee camp, including two homicides and three cases of sexual assault. There were no reported cases of sexual assault by police in either camp. Fifteen relief agencies followed a code of conduct for humanitarian workers to further reduce incidents of sexual abuse by agency staff in refugee camps.
Other security and human rights problems affecting refugees included persecution of Muslim converts to Christianity, community pressure against opponents of female genital mutilation (FGM), forced marriage, particularly of young Sudanese and Somali girls, and family objections to out-of-clan marriage. At times these resulted in the kidnapping of spouses and children. The UNHCR requested increased police presence in the identified troubled areas, as well as increased patrolling within the refugee camps. Additional police were also assigned to the camps but not in sufficient numbers.
There were isolated incidents of interclan violence at the Dadaab refugee camps.
The government required all refugees to remain at UNHCR camps, which were located near the country's borders with Somalia and Sudan, unless refugees had been granted permission to attend higher education institutions, receive specialized medical care outside the camp, or to leave to avoid security threats.
The government introduced mobile courts to serve the camp populations, which were fully fledged judicial courts and instrumental in curbing crime and violence.
The government had not provided temporary protection since 2004 to individuals who may not qualify as refugees under the 1951 convention and its 1967 protocol.