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Kenya Admits Somali Qaxootis Good for Kenya

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AbdiWahab252
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Kenya Admits Somali Qaxootis Good for Kenya

Postby AbdiWahab252 » Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:47 pm

The pains and gains of hosting refugees

By Dann Okoth and Maore ithula

As peace and stability return to Somalia, southern Sudan and other troubled states in the Great Lakes region, Kenya is facing new social and economic changes. The refugee crisis that emerged close to two decades ago has played a great role in shaping Kenyan life. The collapse of the Somali state, fighting in southern Sudan and general instability in the region precipitated the upsurge of aliens in Kenya. And with the hordes of foreigners fleeing war, famine and persecution in their countries came new challenges and blessings to the country’s economic and social infrastructure.

Kenya plays host to an estimated 250,000 refugees. Most of these are Somalia and Sudanese nationals living at the Kakuma and Dadaab camps in the north of the country. Only a few — about 15,000 according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates — live outside the camps, mainly in urban areas. This number, however, could be higher especially given that no official demographic survey has ever been done. Some estimates put the figure around 60,000.

Sudanese children get a view of Nairobi as they wait to registered at the UNHCR headquaters. Pic by Maxwell Agwanda

"These are just working figures," says UNHCR spokesman Peter Waita. "We do not have official statistics of refugees outside the camps."

Whatever the number, their presence has been felt — sometimes positively and sometimes negatively — in urban areas such as Nairobi. Refugees have no legal status in Kenya due to absence of refugee laws. The only aliens recognised by the State as genuine refugees are those confined at the camps.

"The government expects all refugees to be in the designated refugee camps," Waita says. "But a big number are scattered around the country, especially in the cities." Here, their physical security is endangered by various abuses: extortion, harassment, arbitrary arrest and detention, sexual violation and even political murders.



Established roots

The presence of refugees in the country over the years has clearly been positive for the country’s economy. But hosting the foreigners has not been without its difficulties. And as a semblance of peace and stability returns to some of the troubled countries, the question that begs an answer is: How many of the refugees, especially those outside the camps who have established deep roots in the country, will return home? And if they do, what effects will their departure have on Kenyan society?

The refugees’ contribution to the country’s economy cannot be ignored.

First there is their indirect contribution as international organisations descended on the country to provide assistance to them and to address the ongoing emergencies in their countries. A large number of relief agencies and NGOs provide a broad range of services to refugees in the camps, creating employment and trading opportunities for many Kenyans.

More directly, affluent refugees outside the camps made their presence felt in cities and towns. Wielding bundles of cash, most of it in US dollars, Somali refugees hit Nairobi in the early 1990s with a bang. The first to feel the wave was the property market, with rents in most city estates skyrocketing due to increased demand. Spurred on by the Somali refugees’ cash, house rents in most estates in Nairobi soared with many local residents being forced out by the high prices. A case in point is the Eastleigh estate in Nairobi where the refugees literally took over with devastating effects. Hungry landlords moved in for a kill as desperate refugees looking for places to live waving wads of American dollars in their face. Houses that would normally go for Sh2,500 a month went up to a record Sh10,000. The onslaught was not over until the estate was almost entirely taken over by the refugees. Indeed, today, Eastleigh is being referred to as a "Second Somalia" following the refugees’ invasion.

Property rates soared

A similar thing happened in other affluent estates like South C, Westlands and Lavington where the high-spending refugees pushed property rates to the high heavens. Tagging along were wealthy refugees from Southern Sudan, DRC (Congo), Burundi, Rwanda, Eritrea and Ethiopia, who also sought residence in Nairobi’s well-to-do estates.

While this was a boon to the property market and its players, it was certainly a curse to thousands of city dwellers, who could no longer afford accommodation in up-market estates, and had to make do with the less desirable areas.

The refugees phenomenon, analysts say, drove the property market a notch higher, leading to the rapid expansion of housing estates in Nairobi between the mid-1990s to early 2000.

"The growth was phenomenal," says Bryan Okuta a property market agent.

"If the massive growth would have been sustained for longer, Nairobi would probably be ten times its size today," he adds.

On the other hand, places like Eastleigh transformed overnight into a city within a city due to the Somali refugees’ influence. This, of course, led to a significant increase of its revenue potential to the Government. Most of the business outlets in the estate are owned by refugees — or by Kenyan Somalis targeting the refugees’ dollars — who also engage in import-export business. A number have also invested substantially in the money and stock markets.

But while the country has been dealing with many serious ramifications resulting from the influx of foreigners, on the flip side of the coin, there have been a few gains.

For instance, local learning institutions at all levels tapped the influx of the academia (especially from Uganda) to ameliorate what was then a critical shortage of teaching personnel.

On the other hand, many of these aliens have invested heavily in the informal sector. Eastleigh estate, for instance, is the unofficial and exclusive business ‘territory’ for investors of Somali and Ethiopian origins. The foreign tycoons own nearly every property and business in the estate after buying out local investors at highly competitive prices.

Recently, however, as the mad rush for houses dissipates, refugees residing in the country have begun to engage in other businesses such as the thriving public transport sub-sector whose face has been changing drastically. The introduction of new strict safety rules, two years ago, has pushed up the demand for additional public transport and the foreigners have seen a niche.

According to some industry sources, a fair share of the matatu industry is now in the hands of some wealthy refugees.

Apparently, the refugees have joined the sector as a way of entrenching themselves firmly in the country’s business sector.

Impact on economy

However, while refugees’ presence in the business sector is quite evident in the streets, it remains a matter for debate whether their involvement has any significant impact on the national economy. The presumption is that every refugee involved in business in Kenya is registered and therefore liable to pay taxes — but this may not necessarily be so.

Kenya Revenue Authority says it does not discriminate between citizens and foreigners. As such the officials are not able to tell what amount of the revenue, to the exchequer, comes from immigrant business people.

"We cannot tell by just looking at the names, who is an immigrant and who is a Kenyan, when we receive the returns, so it is difficult to talk of the figures," says Agatha Munyaka of Domestic Income Department at KRA.

She says that for a refugee to legally be involved in business, they would have to hold a Kenyan Identity card. That is only when they would be able to acquire a PIN number, which qualifies them to pay taxes.

"I fear most of them engage must be engaging in business illegally, which means the government does not get anything from them," she says.

The official noted that there were some notorious foreign traders, who reaped maximum profits but still demanded tax waivers from the government by virtue of being refugees.

"In most cases they are the ones who claim compensation from us instead of paying their taxes," she says.



Regulating refugees



Last May a lobby group called on the government to prompt refugees residing in Kenya to pay taxes. The group, Refugee Consortium of Kenya, said refugees, especially those residing in the urban areas were engaged in gainful business for which they did not pay taxes because they were not properly registered.

It also claimed that the more than 60,000 refugees in urban areas did not rely on any institution for their upkeep and instead relied on small and medium-scale businesses worth millions of shillings as well as lots of money remitted from abroad without the exchequer levying any taxes.

The foregoing brings into focus the issue of regulating the refugees in order to tap into their potential.

The pending Refugee Bill would be a good starting point. If passed, the bill would enable asylum seekers to have employment opportunities including engaging freely in trade and other income generating activities. Political instability in these countries has fuelled an already escalating crime and boosted the proliferation of small arms in the country and the region in general.

Until the Bill is made law, most efforts the authorities are making are geared towards herding all refugees into the camps in the north. Last June the Government ordered that all refugees and asylum seekers be registered. The then Immigration Minister Linah Kilimo said those who did not comply would be deported. The exercise was apparently intended to provide the true statistics of foreigners in the country and more specifically to determine those residing outside the refugee camps and how to regulate them.

Our efforts to get more information from the Immigration Department on the issue did not yield after we were told that the Permanent Secretary who had the information was away on leave.

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