Found Photos: Last day in Dadaab

Look at what I just found in my computer! These are some pictures from my last visit to Dadaab refugee camp, sometimes in June this year. Dadaab is currently reported to be the worlds largest refugee camp, with over 300,000 refugees, mostly from Somalia, cramped in.



This is how the roads look like.

I first went to Dadaab in 2005 when I began working for FilmAid International.



Posing for a photo with FilmAid staff and refugee volunteers in IFO. Dadaab refugee camp is actually three separate refugee camps, Hagadera, Ifo and Dagahaley.



With staff in Hagadera. Hagadera is the most politicized of the camps and one of the most difficult camps to work in.



This picture is part of a campaign against sex and gender based violence (SGBV). SGBV is quite rampant in the somali refugee camps.



Hanging out with staff



If you cannot eat goat meat in Dadaab, then you will probably starve to death. Tearing into goat meat with Jackie whom I had just introduced as FilmAid's Program Manager in Dadaab.



My last task in Dadaab was to do a jig with Victor and Somali musicians before dashing for my flight. That jig almost cost me a missed flight!

Cultivating Somali Xenophobia

I know that that of late there has been a lot of discussions on Somalis and Muslims in Kenya, and that most of the discussion online are basically trash. However with some time on my hand this afternoon, I decided to go over some of the stuff that people are talking about and was quite surprised about how this is developing. Here are some of the stuff I got from my Inbox from a group that calls itself young professionals....

From a Winifred Nyambura...SOMALIS OWN NOTHING IN KENYA AND IT IS ONLY A LEASE. AND SURELY WE ARE REJECTING THE KATIBA ON ONE GROUND - THE CITIZENSHIP LAW IN THIS COUNTY MUST BE AMENDED IMMEDIAETLY -U KNOW SOMALIS ARE COMING TO KENYA AND GIVING BIRTH LIKE RATS SO THAT THEIR KIDS CAN BECOME CITIZENS. SO WE ARECHANGING IT RIGHT AWAY. WE WANT ALL OF THEM WHETHER BORN IN KENYA OR WHEREVER TO GO BACK AND WORK HARD IN THEIR COUNTRY AND PUT IT IN ORDER.

From Chalis ... there is no way we are going to allow useless characters who have f****d their country to destry ours as well. They have to be trimmed, whether they come in as islam or whatever form,as a country we have to act,in fact i have dealt very closely with somalis, muslims,,,call it whatever name. let then take their extremists behaviours, thninking, ideologies etc etc to afghanistan, irag or werever!!!!

From one David Okello..."The muslim brotherhood is well gone over board and it needs to be "trimmed" (they will take this wrong). The Somalis in places like Kajiado are just too many and currently they are building a very big mosque, this is right under the internal ministers nose, his constituency?"

Another writer...We demand that the Army of Kenya take control of the border and checkpoints immediately and replace these APs and Kenya Police. We have just received shocking news that, 4,000,000 (four million) Somalis have crossed Kenyan border and are in Mombasa, Nairobi, Masai Land, Kisumu and are seeping like a bad smell deeper into the rural village communities in Kenya within the last one year

From the same writer as above...The government must not only be worried of this cleric but also the Somalis who are entering Kenya in large numbers and buying not only the Masaais out of the Rift Valley but also turning Nairobi into a Somali city. Kajiado is filled with Somalis who run businesses who cannot express themselves in either English or Swahili. These are Al-Qaeda Fundamentalists imported to create chaos in Kenya and spoil the future of our children.

Okay, I will reserve my comments for later...