12 suspects have reportedly been arrested at the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp — signalling the complex balance between internal security and offering humanitarian aid at the third largest refugee camp in the world.
Intelligence sources intimated the details to Nation just twenty days after the attack at Nairobi’s Dusit D2 Complex at Riverside Drive, Westlands. Sources privy to the ongoing investigations said that one of the Dusit complex attackers passed through Dagahaley camp “where he was not only facilitated to get into communication with other attackers, but also given transportation logistics to Nairobi”.
The highly-placed source said that three suspected Al-Shabaab terrorists armed with AK-47 rifles and several rounds of ammunition were also arrested last week in Hagadera refugee camp in Dadaab.
“One of the suspects was found with two New Zealand passports bearing different names,” said the source — an indicator that Al-Shabaab networks are more widespread than earlier thought.
Although President Uhuru Kenyatta had in March 2017 ordered the closure of Dadaab camp in the wake of the Garissa University College attack in April 2015 and the Westgate shopping mall raid on September 21, 2013, he was heavily criticised by human rights organisations.
Amnesty International said “by offering no options other than return to Somalia, the (Jubilee) government (was) effectively forcing refugees to leave Kenya”.
Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho has then described Dadaab refugee complex as a “breeding ground for terrorists”, with President Kenyatta asking the UNHCR to relocate the camps which share the border with Somalia.
It is estimated that by the end of 2018, the population of Somali refugees and asylum seekers in the complex was 235,269 scattered in four camps- Dagahaley, IFO, IFO 2 and Hagadera.