Closing Dadaab is in Violation of Kenya’s Supreme Law

Dadaab Refugee Camp

As a consequence of the April 2, 2015, deadly attacks at Kenya’s Garissa University carried out by members of the Somalia-based terrorist organization known as Al-Shabaab, which resulted in the killing of 147 students, the Government of Kenya announced that it wants the Dadaab refugee complex closed immediately and its residents, who are all Somalis, moved to Somalia. Indeed, Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto declared that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) must close the Dadaab refugee complex within three months or “we shall relocate them ourselves.” The repatriation exercise will only affect refugees residing at Dadaab camps and not the 190,000 refugees at Kakuma camp.

This week, the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Internal Security, Joseph Nkaisserry indicated that the decision to close the camp was arrived at in November 2013, when Kenya, Somalia and UNHCR signed tripartite Agreement setting grounds for repatriation of Somali refugees. He noted that there has been very slow progress on the implementation of the agreement and decried lack of commitment by the international community to the repatriation bid.