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"id": 707448,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/707448/?format=api",
"text_counter": 170,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Shidiye",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 2070,
"legal_name": "Mohamed Muktar Shidiye",
"slug": "mohamed-muktar-shidiye"
},
"content": "never cared about the leadership of the country. In Ethiopia, the UNHCR has to go through the Government. Here in Kenya, they had a free hand and they could do anything. So, I would like to address two things on this matter. The international community abandoned Kenya at the hour of need. They left us with a huge responsibility of hosting about one million people. The international community is not giving any support to the Government of Kenya. We have lost a lot of time and money on this matter. Time has come for the international community to chip in and, at least, provide livelihood to the refugees, so that they do not interfere with the locals. It is very painful to keep a grown up person of over 25 years in a refugee camp. I call that a cell. A kid who was five years or 10 years old when he came to Kenya as a refugee is now a grown up. He is strong, vibrant and at his prime age yet he cannot get any job. He is confined in a camp. That is basically why I am saying it is not a refugee camp, but a cell. It is like you are in Kamiti Maximum Prison or Naivasha Prison. Time has come for us to think about the refugee issue. There are three options on this matter. The first option is to encourage the refugees to volunteer to be repatriated to their countries of origin. The problem with this option is that some refugees have been disconnected from their families. They do not know where they came from because they left their countries 25 years ago while some were born in the refugee camps. If you tell them to go back to Somalia, they do not know where to start. It is extremely difficult to start life in a country you are disconnected from. Therefore, we should allow voluntarily repatriation. Secondly, we should, as a country, change our policies so that if somebody stays in Kenya for more than 25 years or even more than five years, they can be accorded citizenship and be allowed to be part and parcel of this country. Immigrants always bring a lot of good things. They bring business and good ideas. America is great today courtesy of immigration, economy of refugees and political refugees. America today is a cultural melting pot. Humans from the whole world have gathered there. Everybody went there with his or her skills. That is why America today is one of the greatest nations in the world. The US economy has been driven by immigrants and refugees. Therefore, as Kenyans, we should swallow our pride. Why do we have a problem with 600,000 people in one village called Dadaab or Kakuma, in making them Kenyans? The third option is to organise for the refugees to be settled in a third country, so that the international community can share the burden. The EU nations, the USA, Australians, Canada and African countries must share the burden of refugees. We can give each country 10,000 refugees. That will be a drop in the ocean. That way, we can close the refugee camps once and for all. However, as of now, none of the three options is being pursued. We have what we are calling “voluntary repatriation”. The Somali Government is not ready to receive them. It is not yet a fully functional state. It is still a banana republic. There is a lot of insecurity in Somalia right now. The Government of Kenya must think of ways of stabilising southern Somalia, so that Somali refugees can be repatriated and settled there. They can be provided with means of livelihood, including farmland, schools, hospitals and a reliable water infrastructure. That is the way you can settle people. However, it is unfair to repatriate and settle people in a country they are already disconnected from. We have about 200,000 stateless people in this country who are just hovering in the darkness. The rule of natural justice demands that somebody must be domiciled in a country. You cannot operate from the air. You were brought by God to this world. You must be domiciled in one country. You must be accepted by a country. However, God did not bring you to this world to be stateless. 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."
}