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{
    "id": 707371,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/707371/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 93,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Mohamed Diriye",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2995,
        "legal_name": "Diriye Abdullahi Mohamed",
        "slug": "diriye-abdullahi-mohamed"
    },
    "content": "Kenya Government. It also ensures that Kenya complies with international obligations that concern refugees. Hon. Deputy Speaker, this Bill aims at the recognition and protection of refugees. It gives effect to the international conventions that are related to the status of refugees. It is very important that our colleagues pass this Bill because it will solve many of our problems concerning refugees. The main concern in this Bill is the host community. The refugees have been here for too long. They came here way back in the 1990s. When they were coming, we did not anticipate that they would be here for too long. They have been here for a quarter a decade now. We had thought that they were not going to stay long. They were put in a big camp and the first casualty was the host community because the refugees had an adverse effect on the environment. My constituency is one of the host community areas. If you go to Dadaab Refugee Complex, which includes Wajir South and parts of Garissa, you will realise that the environment is completely degraded. Trees have been cut and rangeland which the pastoralists used to graze their animals is completely depleted. There is competition for resources between the host community and the refugees and this sometimes creates conflict between them. Therefore, whereas the refugee’s presence has affected Kenya in general, it is the host community which bears the brunt. The first concern is that nobody talks about the interest of the host community; this is the Kenya Government, the UNHCR and the international community. We have been ignored completely. Therefore, as we put this very important law in place, I wish to reiterate the concerns of the host community. This is particularly on the issues of environmental degradation and the problem of double registration. Most of our communities which live around refugee camps have registered as refugees because they are poor and there is food in the nearby refugee camps. Most of them have gone to the refugee camps, posed as refugees and registered themselves. When they register themselves, they are treated as refugees. They cannot get Kenyan identity documents. Those people are estimated to be around 40,000 Kenyans and they are stateless. In essence, they are stateless. Right now, we are involved in repatriating refugees. When they are repatriated, we are concerned about what will happen to Kenyans who have registered as refugees. Therefore, Hon. Deputy Speaker, while we continue our efforts to repatriate refugees, the plight of Kenya citizens who have registered as refugees; who cannot get Kenyan identity cards and who are stateless in their own country must be looked into. For some of us, it is very serious. We might not support Kenya’s efforts to repatriate refugees, if the concerns of our Kenyan citizens who are in that quagmire are not addressed. My second issue is coming up with refugees durable solutions like their re-integration into the local community, resettlement into a third country or repatriating refugees into their country, which is happening now. We are already involved in this process of repatriation. We support it. So far, we have been told that, out of the 350,000 plus refugees in Dadaab Refugee camp, close to 50,000 have gone back to their country over the last three years. That is when the Kenya Government, UNHCR and Somali Government signed the repatriation tripartite agreement. This is a very good effort because it is one of the durable solutions to the refugee problem. Repatriation is one of the durable solutions. Therefore, we support the efforts. We believe it will really help us. Partly, this is being made possible because we have our Kenyan troops in Somalia as part of the African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces. Somalia is now, slowly and slowly, being civilised. There is security now in many areas including the Juba The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}