Nkaissery orders review of Dadaab refugee register

Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery has ordered a fresh review of the list of refugees in Daadab camp to weed out fraudsters.

Nkaissery said there are many cases of double registration of refugees.

The cases comprise of refugees who have irregularly registered as Kenyans on one hand, and on the other, Kenyans who have registered as refugees.

He said this is an offense under the Registration of Persons Act, the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act and the Refugee Act 2006.

The verification process will start on Monday and end on December 31, 2016.

“Those living outside the camp, should report at the nearest Deputy Commissioner’s office while those at the camp should report to the office of the Deputy County Commissioner at the camp for the exercise”, the CS said.

Nkaissery’s directive comes after the government decided to delay by six months the closure of the the world’s largest refugee camp after calls by the UN and aid groups to postpone it on humanitarian grounds.

Dadaab, currently home to an estimated 350,000, was opened in 1991 as a temporary shelter for people fleeing civil war in neighbouring Somalia.

In May, the government cited security concerns as it announced that the vast camp in Northeast Kenya near the Somali border would be shut down.