“Do not receive that phone call. You will be hacked to death by ‘area boys’ ,” a female voice screamed to warn a visiting journalist at Kakuma Refugee Camp in north-western Kenya of the risks stalking him as he slid a hand in his left breast-pocket to fish out the handset that was bleating furiously.

The woman, Ugandan refugee Sarah Aculi, who vends indigenous vegetables at Zone Seven in Kakuma Camp 1, welcomes the visitor to the hustle and bustle at the camp, and the dangers the sprawling United Nations High Commission for Refugees settlement that is now home to more than 300,000 refugees – by February count – from some 10 countries in eastern and central Africa.

Sarah’s intervention came barely five minutes after the journalist had been treated to some drama between Ahmed Hussein, a Somali electronics vendor and a customer. Hussein had minutes earlier been joking with his client that the push to emigrate to the United States of America had come a cropper after President Donald Trump vowed at his inauguration on January 20 to flush out illegal immigrants and African refugees as a way of stamping out runaway crime in the US.

Kakuma Camp, it emerges, is an entrapment its residents are fighting to get out of but prevailing geopolitics does not provide a legroom for manoeuvre. And daily, the numbers swell.

Sarah, a 36 year-old former footballer from northern Uganda says Kakuma has rapidly transformed from a place of refuge and hope for people uprooted from their home countries by conflict, hunger and natural disasters to a seedy ground that is churning out hardened criminals – some as young as 10 years old.

In mid-January 2025, she narrates, an 11-year old schoolboy was brutally sliced to death by marauding ‘area boys’ who stripped him of a smartphone and a video camera he was carrying. The street between the main Kakuma Refugee Camp One entrance and Zone 12 is ‘classified’ as crime zone patrolled by ruthless ‘area boys’, a boda boad (taxi motorbike) rider Jackton Kirui says has spiked and now rapidly spreading to Kakuma town, less than two kilometres from the camp that has been expanding since it was established in 1992 following the arrival of demobilised child soldiers famously referred to as “Lost Boys of Sudan”.

Kirui says the spate of crime at the Kakuma Refugee Camps is phenomenal but UNHCR is reluctant to publicly acknowledge incapacity to rein in the social and security problem at the camp. This is besides the Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement – established in June 2016 and has a population of over 38,000 refugees and asylum seekers – located about four kilometres north of Kakuma Camp.

“At least three people are killed and buried every day. Forget about cattle rustling and banditry that have been synonymous with arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya since time immemorial. Kakuma and Kalobeyei are the new killing fields and unless the government moves fast and reins in the threat, Kakuma is evolving into a new threat to national security,” Kirui observes.

There have always been fears that UNHCR downplays high crime incidence in refugee camps after Kenya threatened to close down the camps in 2016. The stand-off between Kenya – a signatory to UN instruments on refugee rights and protection – and UNHCR followed allegations that the camps had turned into recruitment centres for foreign terrorists.

In addition, the refugee agency has been reluctant to address insecurity and drug trafficking – both linked to diminished humanitarian support in the wake of the Gaza conflict and Russia invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

While the running of Kakuma Camp is the responsibility of UNHCR, the host government is tasked with maintenance of law and order. However, the Kenya National Police Service support unit at the refugee camp is often hamstrung by sheer refugee numbers that swell almost daily as crime becomes more sophisticated.

When Tell raised the issue with relevant organs of the government that included the ministers of internal security, the ministry of foreign affairs and the national police, answers were not forthcoming for more than three weeks. UNHCR on the other hand demanded written questions and promised to respond “immediately” after receiving them. Like the government agencies UNHCR too became fuggy with direct comments. In an apparent tactic to parry any inquiries, UNCCR has been responding to reminders with “working hard to answer your question.”

“Apologies for taking so long on responding to the questions you have shared…I am working hard internally to get the relevant colleagues to submit inputs on this and once I have a green light I will get back to you ASAP,” Eric Bakuli, from UNHCR information office, responded.

For three weeks, no response was forthcoming.

Tell Media had sought information on security at the camps, allegations of the cams being used for human trafficking and as a conduit for granting aliens Kenya citizenship.

In earlier interview with Tell, Executive Protection Services Director George Musamali, expressed strong reservation about how Kakuma refugee camp s run by UNHCR and how it had been turned into a human trafficking centre by a section of the Kenya government and senior officials in Nairobi-based UN agencies. UNCHR, Dr Musamali says, is conduit for human trafficking, which has made Nairobi and Mombasa hubs of the illicit business that rakes in millions of dollars through corrupt acquisition of Kenyan nationality, which grants them the right to apply for and travel on a Kenyan passport.

 “Kenya is in a demographic flux. Unless the government tightens immigration laws and policies there is a possibility of foreigners running and winning the presidency because of the glaring laxity. In 10 years, there is a high chance an immigrant will be at the helm of the government,” Musamali warns.

Indeed, police officers stationed at Lokore police checkpoint – some 60 kilometres on Kakuma-Lodwar road – concur with Kirui and Musamali. One officer said the threat is multifaceted as some of the refugees who arrive in three busloads daily are undocumented immigrants from mainly Somalia, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.

“There are three buses owned by relatives of a minister, a senior intelligence officer and directorate of criminal investigations that are notorious for trafficking illegal migrants. It is difficult to control human flow in and out of Kakuma Refugee Camp because public service vehicle drivers always cite ‘orders from above’. We are told the shadowy figures are close to the president, which makes it difficult to arrest the perpetrators of human trafficking,” said an officer manning the road block.

When Tell referred the concerns and fears of the police officers and public service vehicle owners to the Principal Secretary for Administration in the Ministry of Internal Security Raymond Omollo, he described them as unfounded and speculation.

“I wouldn’t want to go into speculation and I wouldn’t also encourage you to speculate. If people are going to the refugee camp there must be definitely a reason why they are going to there. I don’t want to cast aspersions on any one because there is a process that is used to admit people in refugee camps through registration. The fact that people are moving in a vehicle – unless you want people to walk on foot – they are doing nothing wrong. There has to be some form of movement – whether it is by foot, bus, car or any other means,” Omollo rebutted.

The principal secretary did admit that there is a plan in the works to ‘humanise’ refugee status by way of “Shirika Strategy.” Shirika (Kiswahili for cooperation or incorporation) is a government policy – still under discussion – that if adopted will grant the migrants work permits to work and earn a decent living.

He explained, “We are working on Shirika Strategy that focuses on better integration of refugees amongst local communities. There are people who have been in the camp for 30-40 years. There is a general global understanding that that is not the best way to look after people who have run away from their countries for one reason or another. Our shirika plan would easily make it possible for people to live more decently as opposed to living I camps. We have a bit of delay as a result of events of last year but as a ministry we are trying to complete that process.

“We are focused on making people do the right things as opposed to their lives being dependent of the relationship between the refugees and the host communities. If people can live and earn a livelihood within that environment, it is good for national security and economic development.”

At the height of terrorist attacks between 2010 and 20 in Kenya, former President Uhuru Kenyatta appealed to the United Nations to close down the refugee camps in Kenya – Kakuma and Daadab – that had been flagged as recruitment grounds for terrorists. However, the government did not provide sufficient proof its allegations. Then minister Internal Security Fred Matiang’i gave work permits to refugees from East African Community (EAC) member-states to work in Kenya.

In an April 29, 2021, Ministry of Internal Security post on Twitter (X) platform, the government said “Kenya has formally communicated to @Refugees its decision to close Daadab & Kakuma camps by 30 June 2022. Among the precursory activities in GoK’s roadmap is repatriation of refugees to countries of origin & socioeconomic integration of some of them through work/residence permits.”

Given the diplomatic and national security nature of refugee concerns, Tell Media sought some insights from various government departments – Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja, Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei and government Charles Owino – on the situation at Kakuma, which over the past three years has been adversely impacted by wars in Gaza in the Middle East and Ukraine. The two wars precipitated cuts in humanitarian support for refugees in Africa, which in turn led to drastic reductions of food rations, medical supplies and other reliefs.

Save for PS Raymond Omollo, none of the senior government officials answered calls or questions sent to them on WhatsApp platform.

• A Tell report