Land and housing projects to restore refugees’ dignity

Refugees at Kakuma camp, Turkana County, on June 7, 2017 wait to get food. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Kalobeyei was part of their grazing fields given to the UN by the county government to set up the camp and is divided into three villages.
  • The shelter project ensures construction of adequate housing for refugees that is affordable, accessible and culturally appropriate.

In the recent past, refugees have been a shunned lot and in some instances have faced hostilities from those they live with.

They have had problems being productive in their societies as harsh laws and stigma have always stood in their way.

However, this is slowly changing. Kenya’s newest refugee settlement in Turkana County is taking shape two years after it was set up amid concerns of its long-term impact on the resource-stretched environment.

The Kalobeyei camp is an “integrated settlement” whose model was intended to work for the mutual benefit of refugees and the local community by providing equal access to healthcare, schools and clean water.

RESOURCES
Developed in 2016 after negotiations between the UNHCR and Turkana County government, it marked a shift from the current model where aid agencies are wholly responsible for the upkeep of displaced persons.

The remote outpost is gradually telling the story of refugees and a host community determined to live a better life despite the prevailing circumstances.

Latest UNHCR statistics show 38,561 refugees are hosted there.

As part of a pilot project to help them be self-sufficient and integrate into the local economy, a sizable portion of the land is reserved for farming and other economic activities.

HOUSING

This is a radical departure from the norm because Kenya has traditionally not allowed refugees to work for income and live in permanent structures on the grounds camps are meant to offer temporary refuge pending return to home countries.

This is the situation at Kakuma Camp where the refugees are housed in tents and get food rations from the World Food Programme (WFP).

But at Kalobeyei, some 300 permanent shelters have been built. The project which also involves UN-Habitat and World Bank Group is funded by the Japanese government.

Twenty of these houses have been allocated to the host community as part of the agreement and another 8,000 temporary structures are being replaced gradually.

BUSINESS
Permanent structures are made of mud and brick with iron sheet roofing, interlocking briquettes or hardened paper rolls.

The shelter project ensures construction of adequate housing for refugees that is affordable, accessible and culturally appropriate.

Locals and foreigners who spoke to the Saturday Nation say this model of settlement is better because it takes into consideration the long-term interests of host populations, bringing together humanitarian and development efforts under the leadership of the national and county governments.

Lojore Lokong from South Sudan is the kind of refugee the settlement was designed to accommodate.

“I grow vegetables in a small garden behind my house. Part of the garden produce is consumed by my family of four, therefore complementing our meals usually made of beans or cereals while the rest I sell at the market,” he said.

SANITATION
Lokong is also part of the team involved in a project by Japanese firm Lixil that involves recycling human waste into organic fertiliser, which is then sold for use in the kitchen gardens.

The project dubbed Green Toilet System is designed for areas without access to water and sewerage systems.

“The toilet separates solid and liquid waste, enabling maintenance workers to collect the waste from tanks and transport it to a treatment facility.

“It also requires no water to transport human waste, circumventing the need for a traditional sewage system while protecting groundwater from contamination,” he said of the project by Lixil firm.

The company’s country manager, Yu Yamakami, says they will implement a training programme to ensure these facilities will be properly maintained and can be managed by the local community.

“The partnership with locals and refugees is now piloting sustainable urbanisation strategies, including for sanitation,” Ms Yamakami said.

DONORS
There is also ongoing construction of a community centre with a library and a park, open for use by both communities. 

According to Ayen Thon, also from South Sudan, the settlement offers a part time solution as their over-reliance on humanitarian agencies is reduced.

In fact donor aid has been dwindling in the last two years.

“Many of us have now turned to entrepreneurship in the wake of revelations that some humanitarian agencies are facing funding challenges for the refugee operations in Kenya. We have no option but to think out of the box for our survival,” Thon said

Refugees largely depend on WFP’s in-kind food assistance, a ration composed of cereals, vegetable oil and salt that is provided once or twice a month.

INCOME
But WFP introduced a new electronic food voucher system known as Bamba Chakula, which involves a cash transfer of Sh1,400 per refugee per month.

As at March this year, Kakuma and Kalobeyei hosted 185,867 refugees.

But with no source of income other than WFP’s monthly cash transfer, most of them remain hungry as food is costly and the pieces of land they have for farming are not big enough.

Locals who are supposed to benefit from the settlement’s model through schools and hospitals which have been constructed are also unlikely to allow refugees to own any more land outside Kakuma, such as Kalobeyei.

The refugee-host community relations have been strained in the past due to the perception that the local population has not benefitted from hosting asylum seekers.

ENMITY
In fact, a 2016 study by the World Bank Group, UNCHR and University of Notre Dame showed that many Turkana inhabitants feel that refugees rob and indirectly steal from them through the acquiring of land and access to water.

But the findings conducted in Kakuma, Lodwar, Lorugum and Lokichogio towns also found out that refugees have a significant positive impact on the Turkana people due to economic and social interactions that result in greater access to food and nutritional well-being.

Both the locals of Turkana and refugees also benefit from relief services, the study found.

“The belief that refugees receive resources that local Turkana deserve was stronger in Lorugum area than in any other location despite the fact that it is the farthest distance away from Kakuma Refugee Camp,” the report said. 

REPATRIATION
Interactions between the refugees and the host community have brought to light the latter’s increased dependency on the camp for survival.

Their sentiments were captured by Turkana Deputy Governor Peter Emuria Lotethiro during a recent joint donor tour of the settlement.

“As a county we are happy with the fusing of humanitarian activity with socioeconomic development that also benefits the local community, which is at the centre of the project.

"But we will have to iron out some in-house issues as much as we want the project fast tracked,” he told UN Habitat Executive Director Maimunah Sharif and UNHCR Representative in Kenya Raouf Mazou during the visit last week.

“We will be the last to chase refugees back to areas of hostility.

"But we ask the UN to seek durable solutions to this crisis but not encouraging settlements for long and encourage faster repatriation when their home countries are stable," he said.

RAINFALL
The Kalobeyei settlement has generated great expectations within the local community, who have seen their pastures and earnings shrink as a result of erratic rainfall.

Kalobeyei was part of their grazing fields given to the UN by the county government to set up the camp and is divided into three villages.

Ms Sharif said the agency is focusing on sustainable urban development plans rather than refugee camp expansions.

“We are using a three-pronged approach with other partners in their work. These are urban planning and design, legal framework, and economic strategy. This integrates local economies, which benefit from such a humanitarian approach,” she said.