At least 145 out of 1148 candidates registered for this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary School (KCSE) in Dadaab refugee camp missed the examinations due to the ongoing repatriation.

Some schools, according to Windle Trust Kenya, an organisation that manages secondary and Tertiary education in the refugee camp, said 80 of their candidates have missed the exam.

After the Garissa University attack that claimed lives of 148 including security officers, the government threatened to forcibly repatriate refugees back to their home country arguing that the attack was premeditated in the camps. The state has maintained that attacks in the country are planned in the extensive camps.

According to information obtain by Daily Nation, Hagadera Secondary school which had registered 503 candidates had 80 of their students missing from the examinations while Waberi Secondary school in the same refugee camp had 276 registered candidate but 20 did not turn up.

Ifo and Towfiq secondary schools in Ifo camp had registered 80 and 75 candidates respectively but six from each school did not sit for the exams.

Nasib secondary in Ifo 2 had 19 of its 96 registered candidates miss the exams.

While Dagahaley refugee camp Tawakal and Dagahaley secondary schools had registered 48 and 70 candidates respectively, 4 in Tawakal and 10 Dagahaley missed the exams.

According to recent report by UNHCR, more than 20,000 refugees have voluntary returned back to Somalia and students who have not sat for their exams might have gone back with their family members.

The Kenyan Government signed tripartite agreement with the United Nation High Commission for Refugee (UNHCR) and Somalia for voluntary return of refugees back to Somalia.

A sources in the refugee camps said it’s assumed that the 165 candidates who missed the national exams have either left the camps on voluntary repatriation back to their home of origin or resettled to another country.

There are a total of seven Secondary schools in the camps with a distribution of 2 schools per camp (Hagadera, Ifo, Dagahaley) except Ifo 2 which has only one school, Kampoos camp has no secondary school and the students are enrolled in host community school, Alinjugur secondary school.

SOURCE:DAILYNATION