Matiang’i issues UNHCR with a 14-day ultimatum on closure of Dadaab, Kakuma refugee camps
Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang’i has issued the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with a 14-day ultimatum on closure of Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps.
Matiang’i told the UNHCR that there is no room for further negotiations.
“There is no room for negotiation. We must strike a balance between Kenya’s international obligation and her domestic duties. We do have a domestic responsibility to protect Kenya,” read a part of the letter.
He cited that the two camps pose a threat to the country.
The UNHCR representative acknowledged concerns raised by the Kenyan government and undertook to present the matter to the UN agency’s top leadership for action. Addala said that the commission was committed to finding a lasting solution to the refugee situation, amid rising numbers on Kenyan soil.
Matiang’i disclosed that the aid for the over 500,000 refugees being housed in the two camps has not been forthcoming for some time. This he said also makes it impossible to continue hosting them.
Matiang’i was alongside his Chief Administrative Secretary Hussein Dhado and Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho to the UNHCR representative to Kenya Fadhilaa Addala in a letter bearing the government’s final decision on the matter.
This is the second attempt by the Kenyan Government to have the camps closed and refugees repatriated.
In May 2016, Kenya announced its plans to close the world’s largest refugee camp, Dadaab, saying it had been invaded by terrorist.
A similar attempt was made in 2019 following the dusitD2 complex terror attack in Nairobi in which 21 people were killed.
The Government wrote to UNHCR on February 12, 2019 about plans to close Dadaab within six months and asked the agency ‘to expedite relocation of the refugees and asylum-seekers residing therein’.
