A day in the life of a refugee

A small bag with bulging envelopes slung over his shoulder, Stanis Masudi walks in the scorching sun, from one zone of the refugee camp to another. "I am delivering these photographs to my customers," he says with a noticeable Congolese accent. "You see, I take photographs and sell material, ladies' shoes and cosmetics to keep myself busy and to earn some extra income," he says. "But business is not good here because people just want to borrow." He sends the films to Nairobi via UNHCR flights on Tuesdays and Thursdays for processing. Masudi is one of more than 88,000 refugees living in the Kakuma refugee camp, located in the hot, dusty region of northwestern Kenya, with temperatures soaring to 40 degrees. His day starts at 6.00 am or even earlier, as is the norm with many refugees. He takes a bath, has a light breakfast "whenever possible" and sets out on his day's chores. Being the chairman of the Congolese community in the camp, he is also on standby to attend to the needs of his people and, in turn, present them to the relevant UNHCR authorities. By 10.00 am, the Congolese sector of the camp is virtually empty. "You cannot find people in their houses at this time, they all go to work on various projects or go to attend language classes," Masudi explained. The 207 Congolese refugees in the camp come from all provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Masudi arrived in Kenya in 1991 after a friend smuggled him out of a prison in his home town of Goma, where he had been detained for organising a workers' strike. The friend drove him to Ishasha on the DRC-Uganda border. He boarded a bus to Kampala, and later to Kenya. "I left my wife and three children back in Goma, I don't know how they are," he said. "It is a crippled life I am leading here, but I have no choice." Masudi's case is similar to that of most refugees, scores of them having gone through harrowing experiences. However, except for the uniformity of the refugees' housing structures - grass thatches or roofs made from recycled tins - life at Kakuma is similar to that of any normal village. In Kakuma's case, the local community has become "part of the camp". Local people spend a good part of their time in the camp just hanging around, trading or playing games with the refugees. In the camp, it is "business as usual" - women queuing for water, children playing, some busy in schools, people selling their wares. As evening falls, the refugees retire to their houses, youths and middle-aged men stand around "shopping centres" or sit by the roadside in groups, possibly to catch up with the latest news, as older men play games. "We try to make life as normal as possible because this keeps us going," Juniadi Mohamed, an Ethiopian refugee who has been in the country for the last 10 years said. His main concern is resettlement. "I have been trying to get resettlement in vain," he said. He said a large number of the 3,003 Ethiopian refugees in the camp are ex-military officers in the regime of former Ethiopian president Mengistu Haile Mariam. Most of them have set up businesses, including restaurants in the camp. "The business people often travel even as far as Nairobi to get their merchandise as long as they have the right travel documents," he said. A visitor to the camp is a godsend. The refugees' expectations are high and they readily share their problems with you, seek solutions, and give you letters addressed to organisations which they think would be of assistance. "There is much psychological burden on the refugees and we just have to realise that the situation is complicated and that we are dealing with people who are probably the most vulnerable in the world," the head of UNHCR in Kakuma, Dr Saber Azam, said. Once in a while, fights break out among the refugees. "They usually crop up out of little disagreements, but often escalate," UNHCR Senior Fields Safety Assistant Major Ben Ngaira said. "Sometimes news of disagreements back home are carried into the camp, but most of the time this happens among the populous Sudanese and Somali refugees." Such an incident occurred among the Sudanese community in January 1998 whereby the Dinka fought Equatorians, resulting in the death of six refugees, 269 injuries and a displacement of some 3,000 refugees from the community. "We carried a year-long peace, sensitisation and reconciliation process, and I think we are succeeding," Major Ngaira said. At 65,122, the Sudanese community has the highest number of refugees in the camp. The Somali community, with a population of 19,373, has not been free of incidents either. In January, February and March this year, there were mysterious fire outbreaks which razed more than 1,000 houses in the Somali sector. A Somali elder said the arsonists started the fires by throwing lighted cigarettes onto roof tops. He blamed the community's "Christian neighbours". Investigations are still underway. UNHCR has since established a police post in the camp, provided the police with two vehicles and has hired several Kenya Police Reservists (KPR) to enhance security.