Government to give IDs to Kenyans registered as refugees next month

GARISSA—Kenyan of Somali origin who registered themselves as refugees during the 90’s will now be given national identity cards.

Speaking on Saturday during a meeting with UN agency, Immigration PS Gordon Kilahangwa said government was at final stages to clear database from Kenyan nationals as the camp closes.

“I want to give the assurance that this will be done. We are only doing final touches to it. Those who are affected should rest easy knowing that we are working on it,” Kilahangwa said.

“It is my hope that it will be done. It has been decades of suffering for hundreds of people. I will be very happy to see these individuals regain their citizenship,” Dadaab MP Mohamed Dahiye said.

On November at Dadaab town during breakfast meeting with area leaders and United Nations officials, Deputy President William Ruto said move was aimed at removing hurdles in the way of Kenyas who unknowingly made it to the United Nations data as refugees.

The matter was raised by the governor of Garissa Ali Korane who appealed to the national government, “To fast-track the reinstatement of citizenship for thousands of Kenyan youths who have been captured in the refugee data system of UNHCR after their families moved into the refugee camps when they lost their herds of livestock to drought.”

Thousands of youths in Northern Kenyan counties of Garissa, Wajir and Mandera remain stranded in their home counties because they can’t venture into other towns in the country for lack of identification cards.

Some have not been able to join universities and are not stranded nearly a decade after they completed high school.

The problem was raised in 2016 by then elected MPs from the region who appealed to the government to recognize Kenyans in the United Nations High Commission for Refugees database as “economic refugees” instead of political refugees.

Ruto now assures their plight would be presented to the state department of immigration and registration of persons.

“Those who sought economic refuge in the camps and had their data captured in the UNHCR data, we will review your status and remove your names from their database, ” Ruto said.

He also said the region will receive sh 100 billion development funds in the next four year.