Spare a thought for the refugee today

A few years back, I was travelling from one of the refugee camps in northern Kenya and noticed something that really bothered me; I saw refugees bribing policemen so that they may be allowed to come into mainland Kenya. I wondered why they should do that. Many of us may not know or even care to know that today is Refugees Day. This is because we have never been refugees and we don’t think we may ever be. But the fact that you have not been a refugee does not mean it cannot happen to any of us. If you are a Kenyan and think about what happened in this country in early 2008, you will realize that any of us could be a refugee in another country. People who had been living peacefully, going about their life without a thought about what will follow tomorrow, found themselves as refugees in another country (in Uganda specifically) or as internally displaced persons. None of these people, I am sure, ever thought that they could leave their country and go to live in another country against their wish. Some of the refugees that left Kenya at that time are still in refugee camps in Uganda. This was a rather unfortunate thing but then it is the reality and makes us realize that any of us could be a refugee in another country, or you could be an internally displaced person in your own country. Many people left their homes and property at that time and they are yet to go back. We have many refugees in Kenya today because of the turmoil that has been taking place in the neighbouring countries in the East African region. We have refugees from Somalia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Burundi. These refugees are either in the refugees camps in our border towns in the northern parts of the country, or they are living in different parts of the country. I have friends who are refugees in Kenya and I think that being a refugee is not one of the best things that could happen to them. As a refugee, your life is always in limbo. There is not much that you can do as a refugee – you cannot work nor do business in the country where you have taken refugee. And if you want to get out of the refugee camps, you must have a genuine reason for leaving the camps. You can only be allowed to go out either if you are going out to go to school, or college, or because of medical reasons. The kind of life that these people live in the camps is not the best. They depend on food rations from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other non-governmental organizations that offer one kind of support or another. But the many times is not enough. They get only the barest minimum to survive from one day to another. Many basic necessities are also lacking or overstretched. Another problem facing many refugees is harassment from security agencies. The Kenyan security agents are fond of arresting the refugees for any flimsy reason just so as they may be extort money from them, knowing how vulnerable and fearful many of the refugees are. At the same time, many of the refugees do not know what their rights are under the Kenyan law or international laws that regulate their stay in Kenya. For many of the refugees, there is a lot of boredom. Imagine having the strength and skills to work but getting no opportunity to work to even support yourself! This in itself can just kill one. That is the kind of situation refugees find themselves in. They are in a foreign country where they do not enjoy many human rights just because of their unfortunate situation. As we celebrate the Refugees Day today, let us give a thought to the plight of refugees and think about how we can make the lives of the refugees better. As an individual, each out to a refugee today and just show them love and care. They need it. Who knows, you could be a refugee in a neighbouring country some day. The events of 2008 in Kenya are still fresh in our minds, and the conditions that led us into that kind of situation have not been conclusively dealt with. We are still not out of the woods.