Kenya hosts 303,000 refugees, mainly from Somalia and the Sudan, in Dadaab and Kakuma camps. The 2007 Refugees Act upholds the encampment policy, which prohibits refugees from engaging in agriculture or economic activities outside the camps and limits durable solutions in terms of repatriation or resettlement in a third country. The refugee population has been dependent on WFP food assistance since 1991.

Events in Somalia resulted in 92,000 new asylum seekers between January 2007 and February 2009; further refugee arrivals are expected between October 2009 and September 2011. The repatriation of Sudanese refugees is expected to continue. WFP is monitoring political processes in the Sudan for possible cross-border implications.

Following a government request for continued international support for refugees, and in line with the recommendations of the November 2008 joint assessment mission, WFP plans to continue food assistance for refugees in camps. The refugee population is projected to increase to 420,000 during the operation because of instability in Somalia. This operation will focus on relief, given that few opportunities for refugee self-reliance are available.

The operation is based on:

• general food distributions: fortnightly distributions of milled cereals, pulses, vegetable oil and corn-soya blend;
• selective feeding for malnourished children under 5: WFP will provide a mother-and-child health ration to promote growth and reduce malnutrition among children under 2 and to support pregnant and lactating women;
• school feeding: primary school children will receive porridge at school; take-home rations for girls will be continued to address the gender gap and provide an incentive for girls’ education;
• micro-agriculture: multi-storey gardens will enable vulnerable households to grow vegetables;
• food for assets to enable host communities to build assets for water, agriculture and the environment, increase food security, mitigate negative environmental impacts of the camps and reduce tension with refugees; WFP plans to expand food-for-assets to 54,000 beneficiaries in food-insecure households.

This operation focuses on Strategic Objective 1 and contributes to Strategic Objectives 2 and 4; it also supports Millennium Development Goals 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Countries

Kenya

Kenya is experiencing one of the worst droughts in recent years. Northern Kenya is particularly affected and the government has declared the drought in this region a national disaster. The poor March to May 2011 long rains, coming successively after the failed October to December 2010, have greatly undermined the food security situation in the country....