Tuesday October 6, 2015
By Joseph Ndunda
You must leave: Somali refugees at the Ifo camp in Dadaab near the Kenya-Somalia border on May 8.
Final planning and logistical support for nearly all terror attacks in Kenya take place in refugee camps, Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery has said.He said since Somali refugee camps threaten Kenya’s security, the country will continue to close camps and send refugees back to Somalia.“We cannot continue to offer asylum and protection to populations in areas that are taken over by criminal elements, and in this case, terrorists and their agents,” Nkaissery said.
He was speaking in Geneva at the UNHCR’s 66th executive committee session.
The CS said government security agents recovered a large cache of arms and phones in the Dadaab refugee camp last week.
Nkaissery said only 4,214 Somali refugees have been repatriated out of about 500,000. He said the process should move faster.
The CS said humanitarian groups dealing with the Somalia situation should move to Somalia.
He said the final planning of the Westgate terror attack on September 21, 2013, was coordinated in a camp. At least 67 people were killed and more than 200 others injured.
The CS also said the weapons used in the Garissa University College attack on April 2 were ferried and hidden in the camps.
In that attack, 142 students and five security personnel were killed and many injured.
Kenya has been fully involved in the search for a solution to Somalia’s instability, he said.
The KDF contingent in Amisom has liberated and are in control of more than 20 towns from the Kenyan border to Kismayu, he said.
Nkaissery said the government is concerned about alleged involvement of some UNHCR personnel that facilitate terrorist activities in the country.