(From Voice of America)
The United Nations says it will not close Somali refugee camps in Kenya,
despite an order from a government minister for the camps to shut down.
Kenya hosts nearly 500,000 Somalis who have fled their country over the
past 20 years, most of whom live in the sprawling Dadaab camps near the
border.
On Sunday, Kenyan Internal Security Minister Joseph Lenku said the camps
must close and refugees must prepare to return to Somalia.
Kitty McKinsey, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, said in an
interview with VOA the agency is not taking Lenku's words as a command.
"We do not believe that there is any order for the refugee camps in
Kenya to be closed," she said. "The Kenyan government and the Kenyan
people have been very generous to the refugees over the years, and we
certainly have every reason to expect that will continue to be the
case."
Earlier this month, the agency and the governments of Kenya and Somalia
signed an agreement to support Somali refugees who return home
voluntarily.
McKinsey emphasized that the agreement did not call for the refugee camps to be shut down.
"There are no plans to close the refugee camp," she said. "Certainly the
agreement that was signed among UNHCR, the govts of Kenya and Somalia
does not call for the closing of the camps. There's not going to be a
closure any time soon, nobody is talking about closing the camps any
time soon."
A number of Somali refugees have returned home in recent months as fighting has eased in Somalia and the economy improves.
But many refugees remain in Kenya, where some have lived since the outbreak of Somalia's civil war in the early 1990s.
According to the U.N. refugee agency, the five Dadaab camps are home to
388,000 Somali refugees. It says another 54,000 live in the Kakuma camp
in northwest Kenya, with another 32,000 living in the capital, Nairobi.
These JUBILEE government is just spinning and peddling lies. How are we going to go through 4 years of lies and spins????
ReplyDeleteThe lied to us that they had reached an agreement to close refugee camps. Kumbe story ni different. And meanwhile mainstream media is very very quiet.
Choices have consequences. What were you guys expecting when you elected criminals? Honest people??? Hehehehehehehehehe
ReplyDeleteMutaji-sort.
Why not allow or let the several United Nation's owned and micro-controlled refugee camps remain in place and operable on Kenyan soil as the case has been for over the last forty-seven years?
ReplyDeleteOn one condition, as long as thirty cents on every dollar claimed - by the United Nation, or UN - to be spent on the very same camps, is channeled to the local counties that have bared the brunt of four decades of accommodating refugees - from Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, et al - and for having been ravaged by the residual effects of massive refugee movements.
Then there is a question of the United Nation employing and flying in exclusive employees, - salaried - volunteers and other "protected" UN agents with perks who normally work at all the United Nation's refugee camps in Kenya.
Why has the United Nations failed - and even refused - to recruit three or four local Kenyan workers in various field for every ten employees that the UN has working on Kenyan soil at any given time?
The United Nations has made billions and billions of dollars operating the refugees camps on Kenyan soil yet there is very little to show in terms of UN social - corporate - responsibility to the counties that continue to accommodate floods of refugees from across the country's northern-eastern borders.
Simply put, Kenya should be used as a mega region - international brothel - for warehousing refugees from other war torn countries without adequate compensation for its hospitality as is the case in many other Middle Eastern and European nations.
Who are the people that are really demanding or advocating for the closing down of highly lucrative refugee camps - cash cows and golden goose - when in reality the several billion dollar refugee industry has been benefitting so many well-connected Kenyan families, politicians, businessmen and women, lawyers, private tutors, a multitude of local firms, the aviation industry, booming real estate, tourism sector, weekend nightlife in Nairobi, Mombasa, Malindi and Lamu, et al?
ReplyDeleteForcing the generous hands of UNHCR into closing down the lucrative refugee industry in the north-eastern regions of Kenya is tantamount to snatching candy - peremende - from a baby's drawling mouth that will only end up orchestrating loud screaming choruses in the country's major urban areas for years to come.
Endemic political problems in countries like Somalia, Eretria, Chad, DRC, and formerly in Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Comoros Islands, Mozambique and several west and central African countries were a real blessing in disguise and an economic boom that have benefited Kenyans and their well positioned strategic silent partners for the last five decades.
So, what do Kenyan politicians and certain high ranking government officials want? Do they want to have the lucrative refugee camps uprooted and moved to Ethiopia, Uganda, South Sudan or to a nearby suitable region like Tanzania?
In the meantime, Tanzanian politicians and growing business community are already salivating for the golden opportunity to welcome the UNHCR.
Further, they have even set aside a specific airport that would facilitate the airlifting of refugees from war riddled countries to an exclusively reserved two hundred fifty mile area that has been found to be a suitable alternative location for UNHCR's operations in the larger Eastern African region. A move that would translate into a windfall for the United Republic of Tanzania.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteThe details are not yet available, so don't worry about the devil Kenyans known being in the UNHCR details.
For the time being, voluntary repatriation is what was agreed upon and will continue, however, there is no timeline nor dateline for the proposed closure of refugee camps in Kenya.
As one high ranking government official has already stated, Kenyans are not yet tired of extending hospitality to their deserving good neighbours from the north-eastern region of the country, but they have been doing so for the last four decades very little the international community.
That's why the time has come where by the majority of Kenyans feel that their honourable guests should start to embrace the voluntary repatriation program that is being put in place for families and individuals willing to be resettled in their homeland(s) in the next two to five years.
All the afore mentioned can be changed if renegotiations that will be beneficial to the majority are agreed upon and more money is channeled to improve the infrastructure within the counties where refugees have been accommodated for over the last four decades.
When is Lenku going to come clean and tell the nation what really happened at Westgate Mall, who were responsible and what has been done to address the failures the country's security agencies, and preventive measures that have been put in place?
ReplyDeleteLest Lenku forgets to let the public know what he plans to do about the political/tribal criminals who were responsible for the 2007-2008 post election violence in many regions of the country.
The victims, survivors, families, relatives and friends of the dead deserve to see the day when justice will be served through the court of law.
Show me a country throwing tantrums and Naumia Kuwa Mkena.
ReplyDeleteUN sio baba na mama ati to be concerned with the tantrums.
Very hard times ahead
Where is the well choreographed African Union's last minute ditch efforts of an emergency proposal to the UNSC regarding the current chaotic political situation that exists in the failed state of Central African - Banana - Republic?
ReplyDeleteFurther, where are those African leaders and their so-called "Rubber-Stamp-Delegates" who were shamelessly agitating for a sliced amendment to the Roman Statute?
Why are they not urgently advocating for an immediate rescue of the ongoing deadly situation in Central African Republic, as well as a UN intervention therein?
What is good for the Kenyan goose must be seen to be as good for the gander of Central African Republic by all means.
Lest African leaders forget the fact that the rest of the world is so sick and tired of Africa's self-inflicted political, economic and social problems for the last six decades.
Let's have witnesses and the accused in court
ReplyDeleteIf not so then allow benfuda to use statements of absent witnesses as she is pushing fir amends to rules
I just love the woman. It's a checkmate game over for accussed. It is safer to be physically present in court, she says by latest moves
Ever wondered why the UNHCR has never had the guts to establish a safe haven or several refugee camps within a twenty to fifty mile radius away from the vast United States-Mexican border, given the fact that over thirty-thousands Mexicans get murdered every year in drug related turf wars and other criminal enterprises?
ReplyDeleteOr has one of the most powerful nations in the world prevented the UNHCR from ever operating within the United States?
Surprisingly, the UNHCR has allowed defenseless Mexican children, young adults, women, men and the elderly to continue being wiped out from various regions of Mexico that are under the control of very powerful drug cartels.
Are the Mexican civilians not human beings like their counterparts in the rest of North America, people who deserve to be protected in refugee camps established by the UNHCR in a safe haven like the United States and elsewhere?
How comes the UN and the UNHCR are able to get away murder, abuse of power, wasteful spending, political hubris and environmental degradation - rape - in regions like Africa yet the UN does not have the executive balls to do the same in United States, Canada, UK, Germany, France, etc.?
Or does the whole UNHCR modus operandi boil down on a thriving motto; In Africa Everything Goes, or This is Africa where everything under the sun goes without any legal repercussions?
Is there any hope for the African continent, or will Africa forever remain a cursed continent where outsiders - vultures, economic hitmen, religious do-good-two-shoes - are free to come and go as and do as they will at any given time with help of dirty hyenas, poisonous political snakes and tribal skunk lords in power?
LEST WE FORGET
ReplyDeleteICC-01/09-02/11
Trial
The Prosecutor v. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta
Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta
Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta President of the Republic of Kenya
Summonses to appear issued: 8 March 2011
Initial appearance hearing: 8 April 2011
Confirmation of charges hearing: 21 September to 5 October 2011
Decision on the confirmation of charges: 23 January 2012
Opening of the trial: scheduled on 5 February 2014
Charges
Mr Kenyatta is allegedly criminally responsible as an indirect co-perpetrator pursuant to article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute for the crimes against humanity of:
murder (article 7(l)(a));
deportation or forcible transfer (article 7(l)(d));
rape (article 7(l)(g));
persecution (articles 7(l)(h)); and
other inhumane acts (article 7(l)(k)).
Latvian government falls over Riga supermarket disaster
ReplyDeleteThe prime minister's spokesman told Agence France-Presse news agency that "the government takes political responsibility for the tragedy".
Latvia's PM Valdis Dombrovskis has announced his resignation, and thereby the fall of his government, over the deadly collapse of a Riga supermarket.
He made the announcement at a meeting with President Andris Berzins.
"Considering the tragedy and all related circumstances... "I call on all who look to the future to assess their responsibility and act accordingly." Mr Dombrovskis told reporters.
At least 54 people died when the Maxima supermarket collapsed last Thursday.
President Berzins earlier described the disaster as "murder" and called for foreign experts to investigate what had happened.
Three-time premier
Mr Dombrovskis met the president for an hour and a half on Wednesday, the Baltic news agency Delfi reports.
Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis of Latvia at a news conference (image from 8 November) Valdis Dombrovskis said that a new government was needed
President Berzins was quoted by the agency as saying: "I call on all who look to the future to assess their responsibility and act accordingly."
Continue reading the main story
Analysis
image of Damien McGuinness Damien McGuinness Former BBC Baltic correspondent
The prime minister's resignation has taken Latvia by surprise.
There had been no calls for him to step down. And he is generally well respected.
But there are many unanswered questions about what caused the supermarket's roof to collapse.
A fierce debate is raging in Latvia about whether building standards were violated. And whether the authorities had turned a blind eye.
With his unflashy, down-to-earth style Prime Minister Dombrovskis is seen as an honest and principled leader. He took over in 2009, after the then government collapsed amid street unrests and discontent at its handling of the economic crisis.
Mr Dombrovskis marked a turning point in Latvia's political leadership - a new clean generation, untouched by the corrupt dealings, which until then had characterised Latvian politics.
He pushed through painful and controversial austerity measures. But he remained popular, and had been looking forward to celebrating his crowning achievement on 1 January, when Latvia joins the Eurozone.
The prime minister's spokesman told Agence France-Presse news agency that "the government takes political responsibility for the tragedy".
It is Jubilee that doesnt want to close it.
ReplyDeleteRemember Amina is a Somali. Who else? IEBS Isak, Duale is another. They are helpers of Uhuru.
Another Westgate will be organized by Alsabab by Somalis to help the leaders to have ngud reasons of not attending ICC sessions.
Mambo bado.
ICC- did Kenya government get its way?
ReplyDeleteAfter a week of intense lobbying and diplomatic standoffs, Kenya has secured a review of ICC rules to enable her leaders to be exempted from attending trials in The Hague. Last night, the Assembly of State Parties adopted by consensus an amendment whose effect is to allow President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto to be represented during trial by their lawyers upon application to the court.
Read more at: http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000098838&story_title=kenya-secures-excusal-of-uhuru-ruto-from-trial
This is what Willy Wheeler has been subjected to for half terms since start of the trial case-note it is upon "making an application" than an excusal will be allowed
so no shift in the way ICC has been operating!