Attention of Kenya Police has been brought to some allegations made by an NGO known as Human Rights Watch with regard to the manner in which the Government of Kenya handles Somali refugees. Kenya Police has studied these allegations and finds them to be deliberate falsehoods concocted to discredit Government efforts and depict Kenya as hostile to Somali refugees.

It is a well known fact that Kenya hosts close to 500,000 Somali refugees who fled the civil war in their country. Ever since the fall of the Siad Barre regime seventeen years ago, almost 95% of all Somali refugees have transited through Kenya. Kenya has traditionally treated all refugees with due care and dignity. Presently, Kenya hosts the largest number of Somali refugees in the world in three camps at Dagahale, Ifo and Hagadera. This is in addition to the thousands of refugees from Southern Sudan hosted in Kakuma refugee camp.

Kenya’s track record in handling refugees is internationally recognized and acclaimed. It is therefore absurd for an NGO to turn around and blame the Government on the basis of concocted falsehoods. If indeed any of these claims had an iota of truth, they would have been exposed a long time ago during the seventeen years all these refugees have been in Kenya. The timing of this report is therefore ill-intentioned and must be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.

Like all other countries, Kenya has the responsibility to decide which foreign nationals are allowed into its territory after due consideration of its internal security dynamics. No foreign NGO can arrogate to itself the determination as to whether the Kenya-Somalia border should be closed or remain open.

While the Kenya Police undertake to respond to and investigate all well-founded complaints, absurd and outlandish allegations by foreign NGOs will not be entertained. In the same vein, we wish to draw the attention of all Kenyans of good will to an emerging trend where foreign activists masquerading under human rights banners incessantly offer unsolicited proposals on how the internal security affairs of this country should be managed.

Kenya Police recognizes the important duty performed by our security and immigration officers serving at border points and in areas where refugee are hosted. These officers have performed their duties professionally in enforcing the law and providing security under difficult circumstances and quite often at serious risk to their own lives.
In conclusion, the false and fabricated allegations made by the Human Rights Watch NGO are dismissed with contempt.

Kiraithe E.K.
For: Commissioner of Police.
March 30th, 2009.