As Kenya faces criticism over closure of the world’s largest refugee camp, President Uhuru Kenyatta has cancelled his trip to a UN summit on humane treatment of refugees.
Deputy President William Ruto was set to travel to the US last night to represent Uhuru at the United Nations General Assembly.
No reason was given for Uhuru’s cancellation at the eleventh hour, despite reports his advance team had left for New York.
Ruto’s communication secretary David Mugonyi confirmed the DP would represent the President at the 71st session of UNGA.
The UN General Assembly will host a high-level summit to address large movements of refugees and migrants.
The General Assembly aims to bring countries together behind a more humane and coordinated approach in handling refugees. “This is the first time the General Assembly has called for a summit at the heads of state and government level on large movements of refugees and migrants. It is a historic opportunity to come up with a blueprint for a better international response,” the UNGA websites says.
Kenya has been on the global radar after it announced plans to close the World’s largest refugee camp, Dadaab.
A Human Rights Watch report released this week says repatriation of the refugees from the Dadaab camp fails to meet the international standards.
The report, whose release coincides with the assembly, says many of those returning to Somalia are motivated by fear of being forced out.
It also says the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is not giving the refugees accurate information about security conditions in Somalia and they face serious risk of persecution or threats to their lives if they return.
“There is no way these returns can be considered voluntary,” Human Rights Watch’s Bill Frelick said.
Ruto has been out of the country for days and attended the inauguration of Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu before flying to Montreal, Canada.
The DP led a Kenyan delegation in Canada to mobilise funds to tackle Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria and fly direct to America without returning home.