Source:Tamuka New- Wednesday, 25 June 2014 12h20
Author: UNHCR's Duke Mwancha on Tamuka News www.tamuka.org
Views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of Kosprins Lyrical Wax
DADAAB, Kenya, June 2014 – Philemon Bintu Rudaga, a Congolese
refugee is worried about his four children, whom he was separated from when
relocated by the authorities from Nairobi to Dadaab refugee camp on 8 May.
Philemon, his wife and their 18 year old daughter are now staying at a transit
center in the Dagahaley camp of Dadaab.
Philemon is
one of approximately 160 Congolese refugees who were arrested on 4 May by the
police in an Usalama Watch swoop while worshiping at the Antioch
Church in Kasarani, Nairobi. Four days later, Philemon and some 200 other
refugees were relocated to the Dadaab camp. Since that day, he has been longing
for an opportunity to reunite with his children left behind in Nairobi. He says
they are being taken care of by good Kenyan neighbors and are attending school
as usual. Nonetheless, he knows his children are devastated, and he is afraid
that the events and separation for 6 weeks will have a lasting impact on them.
It is not
the first time that Philemon has been separated from his family. In 2003, he
fled from conflict in his home country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC) and sought refuge in Kenya. His wife and children were only able to join
him in 2010 in Nairobi, where they found tranquility until the arrest at church
and forced relocation to Dadaab.
Refugees,
mainly Congolese relocated to Dadaab during Kenya's Usalama Watch in
Nairobi in May 2014 pray together at a transit center in Dagahaley camp
where Philemon Bintu is their pastor. UNHCR. D. Mwancha
“My
wife and I with our first born child are now encamped here in Dadaab; how am I
supposed to think of myself as a father when my other four children, who are
all below 18 years, are not here with us,” wonders Philemon.
Philemon’s
face displays a lot grief during the interview. His daughter seated next to him
is overwhelmed emotionally when her father narrates the ordeal. In Nairobi, she
was attending a private high school, and had started her 10th grade
earlier this year. She says she has never been out of school for a whole month
before. “I am missing school so
much. I am sure my classmates have covered a lot already. If I continue staying
here for another week, this semester will go to waste,” she says.
Philemon’s
wife worked with the Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK) in Nairobi until she was
arrested. She asks the government of Kenya to forgive her community, even
though they have not committed any crime. “It’s not fair that we are made
to stay here in the camp for over a month without seeing our children. Every
day, I talk to my four children in Nairobi over the phone but I hardly have
anything to tell them because I still don’t know when I am likely to see them,”
she explains.
As a pastor,
Philemon spends most of his time comforting over 170 fellow Congolese facing
the same predicament as him. He is also their spokesman.
On 23 March,
Philemon had been accepted for resettlement to the USA and was supposed to do a
medical checkup and finalize the process in May. He now fears that he might
have lost this opportunity to find a durable solution, as he has not been told
if the medicals have been rescheduled.
Philemon
expresses “The government of Kenya, which
had earlier allowed us to live and work in Nairobi has all of a sudden
brandished us as criminals. I think it will be hard to live in Nairobi again
because our Kenyan neighbors will obviously not look at us in the same way as
before.” He asks
UNHCR to relocate them to another country, if possible.
Philemon
ends by explaining that he has organized with his Kenyan neighbors, to ensure
his four children in Nairobi do not miss school. “Yesterday, their teacher called me and asked that I
should clear their outstanding school fees. He obviously didn’t know that my
wife and I are encamped here in Dadaab.”
_________________________________________________________________________________
Story
documented by Duke Mwancha, UNHCR Dadaab, for the ‘1Family torn apart is too
many’ campaign
Call
to action:
Show your solidarity with families torn apart and share this and your refugee
story: http://stories.unhcr.org
A refugee is a person who has
been forced to flee his or her home country due to persecution, conflict or
other forms of insecurity, and who is not able to return for the same reasons.
At
the end of March 2014, the Government of Kenya issued a Directive requiring all
urban refugees in Kenya to relocate to the Dadaab or Kakuma refugee camps. Early
April, the security operation Usalama Watch was launched in response to the
emerging security challenges facing Kenya. Since then, thousands of refugees
and asylum-seekers of different nationalities have been arbitrarily arrested in
widespread swoops in Nairobi and other urban centres, and detained and
relocated by the Kenyan authorities to the refugee camps. Also, around 355
persons, including at least 3 refugees, have been deported to Mogadishu. Most
of the affected refugees have lived for many years in urban centres, where they
have jobs or businesses, the children attend school and those with medical
needs receive treatment. In the process of arrests, detention, relocations and
deportations, around 300 children so far, including babies as young as 2 months,
have been separated from their mothers and fathers. Several hundred more family
members have been torn apart from their spouses or other close relatives. This
campaign – ‘1Family torn apart is too many’ – is based on the global 2014 World
Refugee Day theme, and tells the story of children, women and men affected by
the operation, and calls to action to help refugee families stay united and
continue living in peace and dignity.
Hussein
Farah and one of his 10 children sit in the shade of their shelter in
Dagahaley refugee camp, Dadaab. He says it is tough to feed his
children, even with full rations.© UNHCR/D.Mwancha 
