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Kenya Vetting Some 40,000 People Who Want to Shed Refugee Status at Dadaab
Camp

Mohammed Yusuf

   NAIROBI - Kenyan authorities have begun a month-long vetting process at
   the Dadaab refugee camp near Somalia to determine who qualifies as a
   Somali asylum-seeker and who is a Kenyan citizen.

   Thousands of Somalis have called the camp home since 1991, when
   political instability sparked by the fall of President Siad Barre's
   government forced them to flee their country. But a number of Kenyans
   also call the camp home after escaping the effects of a severe drought.

   The Dadaab refugee camp is home to about 200,000 people. The government
   says they include some 40,000 Kenyans of Somali descent who falsely
   claimed to be Somali refugees in order to receive free food assistance
   from aid agencies and eventual passage to the West.

   Thirty-year-old Abdirashid Mohamed is a Kenya-born ethnic Somali who
   was falsely registered as a refugee when Dadaab opened in 1991.

   Mohamed says, "I was young when I was registered as a refugee. I was
   young and I couldn't think on my own. We registered as a refugee due to
   our problems. These people came to our area and at the time free food
   was being provided. I don't think there is someone who can stay away in
   a place where free food is given out. That is how we ended up being
   refugees."

   Mohamed, a taxi driver like tens of thousands like him, says he didn't
   want to be a refugee anymore. He was able to provide documents proving
   that he is a Kenyan citizen, meaning he will be free to leave Dadaab
   when authorities clear him to do so.

   Twenty-five-year-old Bashir Ahmed, a high school graduate, was born at
   Dadaab four years after it opened. His parents are Kenyans of Somali
   descent. His family registered at the camp in order to get free food,
   water, and medicine.

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