Feature: Kenyan refugee in Uganda vows not to return home

Hilda Wanjiru is a mother of seven, living in a squalid conditions in the Midwestern Ugandan district of Kiryandongo.

Despite living eight years far away from home, relatives and loved ones, Wanjiru, a Kenyan refugee, vows not to return home although authorities have persuaded her and 500 others to go.

Wanjiru and some 2,000 Kenyan refugees fled to neighboring Uganda in the wake of the 2007/2008 post-election violence.

Although a larger number of the refugees have gone back home, some 500 are still held up here at Kiryandogo Refugee Settlement, citing tribal rifts and land wrangles.

"Life is hard here but we are quite happy and feel safe compared back home. I can't risk my life and the children. We still have serious tribal conflicts and land wrangles that are yet to be resolved in Kenya," said Wanjiru.

After deep thought, Wanjiru, just like other Kenyan refugees here, argues that the land question is critical to their going back.

"We shall continue to struggle with life here. We don't have land back home for resettlement and don't have money to buy it," she said.

Facing the burden of hosting an increasing number of refugees, Uganda now argues that all Kenyan refugees must return home as the conditions there are favorable.

Uganda is host to refugees from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Eritrea, among others.

"They have no reason to continue staying here. We want our brothers and sisters from Kenya to go back home and engage in productive activity," David Kazungu, Commissioner for Refugees in the Office of the Prime Minister, has said.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) last year in May voluntarily repatriated at least 1,500 Kenyan refugees who had been staying at the Settlement for about nine years.

The repatriation followed the March 30, 2015 tripartite agreement reached between Uganda, Kenya and UNHCR to resettle the refugees.

Uganda has now reduced relief support to the Kenyan refugees, focusing now on new entrants. This move has left the Kenya refugees crying foul.

"Now days we (Kenyan refugees) don't get anything (relief assistance) from government and UNHCR. They cut and stopped giving us assistance and relief food after five years. We have to struggle to live and survive on our own," said Wanjiru.

They now have to engage in petty businesses in order for them to survive. Wanjiru's husband has to look for casual labor jobs to get money to support the family.

For Wanjiru, she deals in vegetables which she buys from the locals and sells them to other refugees.

Wanjiru's fears for her elder daughter, who now does not go to school after failure to get school fees. She argues that the daughter may be lured into immoral behaviors or get married off soon.

Charlie Yaxley, UNHCR external relations officer, told Xinhua that the UN refugee agency stopped giving relief assistance to the Kenyan refugees because they were believed to be self-reliant to grow and provide for their own.

"The refugees in Uganda, after all the necessary procedures and approvals are done, they are given land to cultivate and grow their own food," said Yaxley.

The Ugandan government allocates two-acre piece of land to each of the refugee family in the refugee settlements to build a house and farm. Endit