More than 6,000 jobs to be lost if Kakuma refugee camp closed - KNCCI Turkana

The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry  Turkana branch has urged the government to review the decision to close the Kakuma refugee camp.

KNCCI Turkana branch says the closure of the camp will lead to the loss of over 6,000 job opportunities.

Chairman Pius Ewoton said the refugee camp contributes to Kenya's GDP and creates many job opportunities  for locals.

“Over 6,000 business activities will be lost when the government closes the camp. This will also affect the cross border trade between Kenya and South Sudan,” Ewoton said. 

“We request the government to relook at the decision of closing the Kakuma refugee camp. It should look at it from the East Africa integration perspective because most of the refugees at Kakuma come from Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and the majority are from South Sudan,” he added.

Ewoton said in the spirit of EAC, Kenya should allow refugees from the region to remain.

Turkana leaders led by Governor Josphat Nanok said the order to close the two largest refugee camps, including Dadaab, by the state is ill-informed.

Turkana West MP Daniel Epuyo also warned against shutting down the camp. 

Kenya has said it intends to close the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps by the end of June 2022.

In April, the government made its formal communication regarding the closure of the camps to the UN Refugee Agency.

Interior CS Fred Matiang’i and his team had given the UN refugee agency 14 days to come up with a plan for closing the camps.

On April 8, the High Court suspended the move to shut down the camps that hold refugees from war-torn neighbouring countries.

US acting top diplomat in Africa Robert Godec has said America is concerned by the possibility of closing the camps and has raised the issue with Kenyan officials.

He said the US is encouraging Kenya to move forward on a proposal under discussion with the UN refugee agency.

“We hope and expect that Kenyans will live up to their international commitments and that this matter will be resolved,” Godec said.

The Dadaab camp holds more than 200,000 refugees mainly from Somalia, which has not known peace since the 1991 ouster of long-time dictator Siad Barre.

The Kakuma camp in northern Kenya hosts nearly 200,000 refugees and asylum seekers, the majority from South Sudan's civil war.

Kenya has been saying for years that it would like to close the Dadaab camp near the Somalia border, calling it a source of insecurity.

Officials have described it as a recruiting ground for the jihadist rebels of the al-Shabaab extremist group and a base for launching violent attacks inside Kenya.

A court in 2017 blocked the closure of Dadaab, saying it was not safe for refugees to return to Somalia.

Kenya demanded a timeframe the agency will use in closing the camps over insecurity and environmental degradation among others.

UNHCR agreed to repatriate up to 100,000 refugees to other countries like the USA, Canada, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

“We disagree on the timeframe because it is open-ended. We need a definite date on when these transfer will start and end,” said an official aware of the talks.

In the response to Kenya, the refugee agency said it is hosting 512,494 refugees and asylum seekers with 224,462 at Dadaab, 206,458 at Kakuma and Kalobeyei settlement and 81,574 in urban areas.

UNHCR plans to relocate 10,000 to Somalia, 5,000 to Ethiopia, 5,000 to South Sudan, and 3,500 to Burundi by end of 2021.

Some 25,000 refugees will acquire residency status in EAC and settle 5,000 others in the US.

However, due to lengthy security screening, no Somali departures are foreseen for 2021, the response says.

In Somalia and South Sudan, UNHCR will need an increased presence in areas of return and expansion of facilities to host the staff and refugees. This can be done in 2022.