Judge quashes State directive to shift refugees from key towns

 

Mr Justice David Majanja. Photo/File 

By GALGALLO FAYO

Refugees living in urban areas have won a battle against relocation to camps. The High Court said the move by the government threatened the basic freedom of refugees.

“The government directive, contained in the press releases and correspondence dated the December 18, 2012 and January 16, 2013 respectively is hereby quashed,” ruled Justice David Majanja on Friday.

Kituo cha Sheria and seven refugees moved to the High Court in January to challenge the directive and obtained a conservatory order.

The government had also required that UNHCR and other aid groups to stop providing direct services to asylum seekers and refugees in towns.

The move followed a spate of grenade attacks in north eastern as well as Nairobi’s Eastleigh area where most Somali refugees reside. The attacks were blamed on sympathisers of Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab militia.

The judge said that there was no justification to use security operations to violate the rights of refugees.

“A real connection must be established between the affected persons and the danger to national security posed; and how the indiscriminate removal of all the urban refugees would alleviate the insecurity threats in those areas,” said Mr Justice Majanja.

The judge said the directive may make some petitioners to flee to unsafe areas which would be a threat to their lives.

According to UN High Commissioner for Refugees more than 33,600 Somali refugees live in Nairobi alone and Kenya hosts refugees from nine nations.

(Read: UNHCR opposes Kenya move to push refugees out of towns)

An estimated 600,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers drawn from, among others, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC live in Kenya.

The government had intended to move all refugees residing in towns to the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps and later to their countries. The first phase targeted 18,000 refugees and was to start on January 21 before the court issued the injunction.

Dadaab, around 100km from the main border with Somalia, hosts more than 468,700 mainly Somali refugees.

Kakuma, about 100km from the border with South Sudan, hosts more than 103,600 refugees, half of them Somalis and the others from South Sudan.