Paper short abstract:

People in Kakuma have many encounters with the Kenyan state. Using the case of a family, I reflect in this paper how people experience to be refugees in Kenya. This will shape the way they can respond to the possible closure of the camp which has been recently announced by the Kenyan government. .

Paper long abstract:

Kakuma refugee camp is the biggest town in Turkana County. App 200.000 people mainly from South Sudan and Somalia live in the camp, which is governed by the Kenyan Department of Refugee Affairs in conjunction with UNHCR. While there has been recently a new influx of South Sudanese, who came to the camp because of conflicts and the economic crises in South Sudan, most of the refugees living in the camp live in protracted refugee situations. They are categorized by the refugee regime as people whose future is imagined along the three durable solutions and their stay in the camp is perceived as a situation of limbo. Although local integration is not on the agenda of the Kenyan government, people in the camp have many encounters with the Kenyan nation state. The schools in the camp follow the Kenyan syllabus; children from the camp visit private school near the camp or go to Kenyan boarding schools and refugee passport and identity cards are issued be the Kenyan government. As opportunity for resettlement are limited and repatriation is not a feasible solution for most of the refugees, many refuges try to develop alternatives futures such as, getting education outside the camp, building up transnational business, or moving to cities in Kenya. Using the case of a South Sudanese family, which I have been visiting since 2009, I will reflect on how refugees experienced their encounters with the state, how they negotiate their belongingness and how they imagine their future in Kenya. Their capacity to navigate their situation as refugees in Kenya will also shape the way they can respond to the possible closure of the camp which has been announce by the Kenyan government.