Low national test scores in the northeast region coupled with the high cost of tertiary programs make it nearly impossible for the majority of refugee and local students to qualify for Kenyan university degree programs.
The only access to university-level teacher education afforded to people living in the camps is through scholarships sponsored by various NGOs programs that are limited to the minute percentage of top-performing young men and women. The scholarships awarded to these students are a great benefit to them, but they remove them from the camps and region and relocate them to universities in major Kenyan cities or abroad, a system that takes the brightest away from their own communities.
The vast majority of students who do not earn top grades and oftentimes those with familial obligations especially older women are unable to apply for these opportunities. In addition to the systemic limitation of access to education, the chronic instability of camp life, constant threat of camp closure and relocation, scant resources, harsh environment and violent military activity of Al-Shabaab along the border all exacerbate the challenges to quality learning in the region.
These barriers are particularly acute for women. Chronic violence, cultural patterns of disenfranchisement, limited prior access to primary and secondary education all conspire to keep women out of tertiary teacher education programs, and thus out of schools and national education systems. Due to civil war, merciless killings, explosions, drought and extreme scarcity of food in Somalia, the number of people seeking refugee from Somalia in Dadaab increased to over half a million people.
The new population is residing in generally poorer conditions in terms of food, healthcare and education. Livelihoods are severely limited within the camps. The main forms of livelihoods are relief, remittances and some small livestock. Some refugees have established small-scale businesses to cater for their daily needs. In addition to this, the Kenyan Government instituted a policy that limits movement of refugees outside the Camps. This means refugees have limited access to labour markets or to alternative sources of income, making them highly dependent on food donation from UNHCR and other aid agencies.
However, animosity between Dadaab refugees and local Kenyans has also developed, particularly over the management of scarce resources.
Access to water, land use for business, and firewood is a specific source of collision between the two communities, with the ever-growing refugee population utilising the goods in ways that are not sustainable. During times of drought, this tension is exacerbated by aid disbursement to refugees that outweighs assistance to local communities. Unequal access to resources has motivated an estimated 40, Kenyans to register fraudulently as refugees. Security has also been a growing concern for Kenya, which has been directly engaged in combating Al-Shabaab in Somalia.
Insecurity has hindered the operation of aid agencies in Dadaab complex. As result of this, the movement of aid agencies within Dadaab Camps is restricted and requires increased security such as escorts by armed vehicles.
As of , there are 19 primary schools and 7 secondary schools.. Although secondary education is important, primary schooling is a priority for donor agencies. Although primary school education has been a priority for donor agencies there are still challenges of overcrowded classrooms.
Because refugees can't get Kenyan IDs or seek employment, they depend on food aid -- in some cases for decades. The World Food Program WFP has struggled to fund its operations in Dadaab, and dropped rations by 30 percent this summer -- meaning that the daily nutrition refugees now receive is roughly a third less than the bare minimum recommended by the U. At one of the largest hospitals in Dadaab, doctors deliver babies a month.
All of them enter the world as refugees, many to parents also born in the camp. Doctor John Kiogora checks on Rahmo Abdi as she cradles her nine-month old daughter Munira in her arms.
Munira is roughly half the weight of a healthy baby her age. She's had trouble breathing, and doctors believe she may have heart problems. As Abdi awaits the diagnosis from doctors, Kiogora tells us he is worried that the food cuts will have an effect on nutrition rates.
Rahmo Abdi, 20, came to Dadaab as an infant. Now she has one of her own. Munira is nine months old and doctors believe she might have heart problems. Four years ago during the famine, this hospital was struggling to cope with sick, hungry and sometimes dying infants lying on beds, mattresses and the floor. But as the crisis faded, so has the funding. Kiogora says they aren't able to fully staff the hospital, which is run by the International Rescue Committee, with enough health workers.
Some believe that the Kenyan government's plan is to squeeze refugees like Abdi out of Dadaab. Despite the dire conditions in Dadaab, the people here are trying their best to maintain some semblance of normalcy.
Halema Mahadi sells clothes at a market in Dadaab, but says she relies heavily on the dwindling food rations provided by aid groups.
Halema Mahadi, 45, sells clothes at the market in Dadaab. She is one of the hundreds of thousands here who relies on food rations, and she wishes she had more power to make money for her family. Wacy Mohammed Bulle sits inside his tailoring shop and assesses life in the camp. If Bulle has hopes for a better life elsewhere, he also seems prepared for the possibility of living out his days in Dadaab. I just want to lead my own life.
Refugees should have three options if they want to leave the camps for good, according to international law. They should be able to apply for resettlement in a third country, return to their country of origin or integrate into their country of asylum.
But settling in Kenya isn't an option because the government is unwilling to grant Dadaab's refugees citizenship.
And historically less than one percent of refugees worldwide are resettled in a third country. After April's devastating terror attack in nearby Garissa -- where Al-Shabaab militants murdered people, most of them university students -- the Kenyan government, which has for decades carried much of the burden of Somalia's refugee exodus, has repeatedly threatened to close the camps entirely.
The government claims Dadaab is a major planning, recruiting and brainwashing base for Al-Shabaab. Last month Kenyan security forces claim to have broken up an Al-Shabaab cell they say operated right out of the camps. But Abdi says that the Kenyan government exaggerates the threat. Kenya never officially called for Dadaab to close, but it is certainly trying to reduce the camp's numbers.
While it can take years of paperwork for a refugee to obtain one of the few spots for resettlement to a third country, voluntary repatriation back to Somalia is a picture of efficiency. A Dash 8 turboprop plane ferries a batch of refugees several times a week back to Somalia.
The number of regions has recently been expanded as more areas are deemed safe, but experts like Abdi say that the security situation in much of the selected zones are still precarious.
African Union troops and Somali government forces still face a significant threat from Al-Shabaab and refugees say the war that forced them from their homes is still going on. Habiba Yussuf Abdi lives with her grandmother in Dadaab. She recently lost her grandfather. The war is still going on.
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