CS Joseph Nkaissery picks team to facilitate refugee repatriation

CS Joseph Nkaissery. PHOTO: FILE

NAIROBI: The government's stand on repatriation of refugees is even more certain as an 11-member team is put together to spearhead the process.

Interior and Coordination Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery wants the team headed by General (rtd) Gordon Kihalangwa to come up with timelines and costs for the repatriation of the refugees.

He also wants the team to develop a plan for the provision of security during the repatriation process and also develops a refugee management and control strategy for the period.

The details are contained in a gazzette notice he published May 11. Other members to the National Taskforce on Repatriation of Refugees are Martin Kimani, Richard Ndubai, Mohamud Saleh, Reuben Kimotho, George Walwa (brig.), Catherine Bunyassi, Catherine Mogaka, Boniface Maingi, Naman Owuor and Haron Komen.

Wilberforce Kilonzo and Muthoni Kanyugo are the joint secretaries to the team.

Nkaissery wants the team to submit its report by end of this month.

"(The team) to develop a verification criteria for refugees that will feed into a comprehensive refugee database and develop a sensitisation program for refugees host communities on the repatriation exercise."

The taskforce shall also examine and recommend appropriate legal and policy framework to enable repatriation in light of the existing laws and conventions.

"The team shall also identify emerging international practices in refugee management in the context of national security consideration," reads the gazzette notice.

The government announced its intention to close down the two major refugee camps– Dadaab and Kakuma–in a major plan to return more than 600,000 refugees back to their homeland.

Interior PS Karanja Kibicho said the decision is due to increased risks posed on national security and the strain on the country's economy.

"Due to immense security challenges such as threat of Al-Shabaab and other related terror groups that hosting refugees has continued to pose to Kenya and due to the slow nature of the repatriation, the government of Kenya has been forced by circumstances to reconsider the whole issue of hosting refugees and the process of repatriation," said Kibicho.

He announced the disbandment of the department of refugee affairs as the first step towards shutting down the camps.

The announcement has elicited heated debate in the international arena with human rights agencies discouraging against repatriation.

Kibicho however called upon the international community to support the initiative so that the process of closing the camps is expedited while at the same time minimizing pain and suffering of the refugees.