Kenya has lost patience over the existence of Dadaab refugee camp, which the country believes is significant in the increased terrorist activities.
Kenyan intelligence reports have warned that the camp has been markedly used by the al Shabaab to coordinate their attacks.
Most refugees came in Kenya, settling in the vast camp for security reasons and now the Kenyan government argues that it is still the same security reasons that will force it to free the country of the refugees.
Dadaab, a vast settlement of makeshift homes and tents, was set up in 1991 to provide a haven for Somalis fleeing civil war.
Also read: Refugees in Kenya will return to Safe Parts of Somalia amid Liberation from Al Shabaab
The Dadaab refugee camp is now home to 351,000 refugees, virtually all Somali.
Some of them struggle to forget the cruelty they underwent under the insurgents in their own country who massacred their loved ones and stole all their belongings, with themselves escaping only narrowly for the haven in Kenya.
And now they say they cannot think of going back to Somalia.
The Kenyan government however says it is unfortunate that the future of Dadaab refugee camp has to be as short as possible.
This follows a series of attacks against the nation that hosted the refugees so generously, giving them access to facilities in a measure, as sumptuous as could be affordable.
After militants from Somalia’s al-Shabaab attacked a university in Garissa in Kenya three weeks ago, killing 148 people, politicians called for the closure of the Dadaab refugee camp, seen as a recruiting ground and haven for the al-Qaeda-linked group.
Vice-President William Ruto ordered UNHCR, the international body that runs Dadaab, to close down the camp within three months, or Kenya would do it for it.
For now, Kenya has softened its stance against the refugees.
Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed last week ruled out involuntary repatriation to Somalia, but appealed to donors for more funds to enable refugees to return home, and the camp to shut.
With the donation, Kenya hopes to repatriate all the Somalis back to their country and have the Dadaab refugee camp, a story of the past.
Kenya has argued its toughening stance is justified by the threat the Somali community poses to its citizens with officials revealing that the Garissa attackers stayed in the Dadaab refugee camp from where they assembled their arms.
