Somalis in Kenya suffer the consequences of Kenyan war in Somalia
After a spate of kidnappings of foreigners (including two Doctors Without Borders workers) in Kenya were attributed to Somali militant group Al-Shabaab, the Kenyan government formally launched a military campaign aimed at eradicating the group. In mid-October 2011, the Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF) entered Somalia and have been fighting battles there ever since, gaining some international support, with Ethiopia sending troops and France providing logistical support.
Almost immediately after the incursion, analysts warned of two things: vengeful attacks carried out in Kenya by Al-Shabaab and/or their sympathisers, and a backlash against the Somali community in Kenya. Both predictions have since come true. Grenade attacks in Nairobi and explosions in northern Kenya, near the border with Somalia, have injured dozens and claimed several lives. Most concerning, however, is the impact on the lives of Somalis living in Kenya, both in the cities and in Dadaab refugee complex, along the border with Somalia.
UNHCR figures indicate that by January 2012, there were 479,000 Somali refugees in Kenya. They account for the majority of the population in both of Kenya’s main refugee camps, Dadaab and Kakuma, with tens of thousands also living in the capital, Nairobi. There is also a large number of ethnic Somalis who are Kenyan citizens; Kenya’s latest census, published in 2010, listed 2.3 million ‘Kenyan Somalis’ living in the country.
Life for refugees in Kenya has never been easy; a report published in 2010 quotes Somali and Ethiopian refugees in Nairobi as saying they are ‘stopped by the police on a daily basis and threatened with detention, regardless of whether they have appropriate documentation or not’ (Hidden and exposed: Urban refugees in Nairobi, Kenya, Humanitarian Policy Group, March 2010). Amnesty International, in a report also published in 2010, states, ‘even those who have proof of their refugee status or of their asylum application have been arrested and forcibly returned in violation of the principle of nonrefoulement’ (Kenya: From life without peace to peace without life: The treatment of Somali refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya, Amnesty International, December 2010).
Since the KDF’s incursion into Somalia, however, matters have become worse. Shortly after the beginning of the military campaign, many Somalis in Nairobi avoided going out, fearing xenophobic attacks. The police have carried out a number of raids, arresting people in Nairobi’s predominantly Somali neighbourhood of Eastleigh, but also in Dadaab. In one raid, 43 people, including women and children, were taken into custody. As explosions continue to occur in Kenya’s northeastern region, so do raids and arrests. The situation escalated when a security operation was carried out in Dadaab in late December 2011, during which, according to camp residents, ‘the police arrested dozens of refugees and beat up others’, injuring dozens. In early January 2012, several Somali community leaders left the camp, fearing for their lives after two of their colleagues were shot and killed by unknown perpetrators in separate incidents. Human Rights Watch documented a number of ‘human rights violations by security forces against ethnic Somalis and others’, including an incident where ‘soldiers in Garissa rounded up ethnic Somalis arbitrarily on the basis of their appearance, beat them, and forced them to sit in dirty water while interrogating them’.
On 22 January 2012, the shocking news emerged that the Kenyan government is planning on moving refugees from Dadaab to ‘safe havens in Somalia’, according to an article published in Kenyan newspaper The Standard, which quotes security officials. This planned so-called ‘relocation’ is allegedly being done with the support of ‘UNHCR and the international community’, and will send refugees to areas inside Somalia that are now supposedly safe after being secured by Kenyan troops. The purpose of the operation, as reported, is to ‘weed out criminals’ who are accused of colluding with Al Shabaab in the attacks carried out in Kenya. A security officer said ‘security agencies had been profiling the refugees and those found not to be abiding by the rules would be prosecuted, have their refugee status revoked and face repatriation’. The article further states that ‘Kenya says the refugees are to blame for the proliferation of illegal arms in the country, which are smuggled in from war-torn Somalia and later sold to criminals’. A date for the beginning of this relocation, which could amount to refoulement under international law, has not yet been announced.
