VZCZCXRO9415
RR RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHNR #0262/01 0400649
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 090647Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY NAIROBI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0726
INFO GENEVA IO MISSIONS COLLECTIVE
SOMALIA COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NAIROBI 000262 
 
SIPDIS 
DEPARTMENT PASS TO PRM/AFR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF PREL KE SO
SUBJECT: U/S Otero Urges for More Educational Opportunties and 
Security in Dadaab 
 
REF: 10ADDISABABA135 
 
¶1.      (SBU) Summary: Under Secretary Maria Otero visited the 
Dadaab refugee camp as part of her January 25-28 visit to Kenya. 
The need to improve educational opportunities for refugee children 
and to respond to the security threats of refugee women - 
particularly as they search for firewood - were gaps in services 
noted by the U/S.  The U/S also reiterated to refugee leaders and 
NGO representatives our commitment to remain a key donor to refugee 
operations in Dadaab, to continue advocating with Government of 
Kenya officials for additional land to relieve overcrowding in 
Dadaab, and to persist in our efforts to find a solution to the 
conflict in Somalia so refugees can return home safely.  End 
Summary. 
 
 
 
¶2.      (U)  Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global 
Affairs Maria Otero, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor 
Deputy Assistant Secretary Daniel Baer, Special Advisor to the 
Office of the Under Secretary Nicole Goldin, and the U/S' Personal 
Assistant Caroline Mauldin visited the Dadaab Refugee Camp on 
January 27.  The delegation was accompanied to Dadaab by Embassy 
Nairobi Deputy Chief of Mission Lee Brudvig, Kenya US Liaison Chief 
Colonel David McNevin and post's Refugee Coordinator.  The 
delegation was briefed by UNHCR-Dadaab Officer in Charge Fortunata 
Ngonyani and UNHCR's External Relations Officer Andy Needham.  The 
delegation observed newly arriving refugees being registered at 
UNHCR's Registration Center in Dagahaley camp, toured a primary 
school and WFP warehouse and food distribution center in Ifo camp, 
and met with refugee leaders and representatives of NGOs operating 
in Dadaab. 
 
 
 
¶3.      (U)  UNHCR reported that more than 200 new refugees per day 
were seeking entry to the camps.  Although less than half the new 
arrivals who sought entry in January 2009, UNHCR staff noted there 
has been a steady increase of new arrivals since December.  UNHCR 
expected that new arrivals in January would reach about 4,000 
(Reftel reported 2,730 new arrivals between 1 -24 January) with the 
overwhelming number of new arrivals reporting they left Somalia due 
to violence.  UNHCR confirmed that all new arrivals were registered 
and provided a food ration card, but only those with an assessed 
protection need were accorded space to establish a shelter within 
an existing camp.  Despite UNHCR's just-completed verification 
exercise lowering the overall camp population from an estimated 
300,000 to 260,443, UNHCR said they still didn't have sufficient 
space to house the new arrivals or to relieve severe overcrowding. 
UNHCR said additional land for a fourth camp was still urgently 
needed. 
 
 
 
¶4.      (U)  The Horseed Primary School in Ifo camp managed by 
CARE, was hot, overcrowded and in desperate need of additional 
resources.  CARE's Education Coordinator, Musa Dahir, reported that 
the Horseed Primary School had 3,293 students (1,305 girls and 
1,898 boys) in grades 1-5 attending school in two shifts.  He 
confirmed a teacher-pupil ratio of one to more than 100, and that, 
if available, up to seven students shared one desk.  The ten 
classrooms in the primary school had open unscreened windows, no 
doors and were unprotected from the noise of neighboring 
classrooms.  Despite the fact that most teachers were not properly 
trained and the school lacked textbooks and basic school supplies 
such as chalk, many refugee parents remained eager to send their 
children to school, but couldn't due to a lack of space (Note: 
During the visit a Swahili language class was being conducted 
outside under the shade of a tree for about 35 children, one of 
several trees identified as being used as classrooms. End Note). 
WFP supports a school feeding program to ensure that students 
received at least one nutritious meal per day and to encourage the 
participation of girls (Note: about 40 per cent of the children in 
Horseed School are girls. End Note). UNHCR estimates that less than 
half of the children in Dadaab participate in organized primary or 
secondary education. 
 
 
 
¶5.      (U)  Although the delegation did not observe a food 
distribution, they were able to observe the food warehouses and 
walk through the Ifo food distribution center.  WFP confirmed that, 
in anticipation of el Nino rains, it had recently upgraded its 
Dadaab facilities and had pre-positioned or has received 
commitments for sufficient food stocks to feed the current Dadaab 
population through July.  WFP noted that new arrivals are arriving 
 
NAIROBI 00000262  002 OF 002 
 
 
in worse condition then previous new arrivals and that the Global 
Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates ranged between 12 and 13.6 percent 
(Note: UNHCR has as a 2010 goal to reduce the GAM to 8 percent. End 
Note). 
 
 
 
¶6.      (SBU)  The U/S met with the refugee-elected Chairman and 
Chairlady from each camp (except Lagadera which was only 
represented by the Chairman).  The refugee leaders, who were all 
concluding their tenures as refugee leaders this year and who were 
surprisingly well-versed in UNHCR's funding situation, stressed 
their concern that refugee services were being compromised as new 
refugees continued to arrive and UNHCR had not budgeted for a 
rapidly increasing population.  Leaders also highlighted their 
concern about the number of children unable to attend school and 
requested scholarships for secondary students.  Saying they are 
tired of being in the camp yet can't return home, the leaders asked 
that they be included in conferences and other efforts to find a 
solution to the Somalia crisis.  The U/S underscored the USG's 
commitment to remain a significant donor to refugee programs as 
long as the refugees stayed in the camps, to continue advocating 
for more space to relieve overcrowding in Dadaab, and to continue 
its efforts to resolve the conflict in Somalia so the refugees can 
return home safely.  Reflecting the leader's concerns about the 
deplorable state of education in the camps, the U/S highlighted her 
desire to see expanded and improved educational opportunities for 
refugee children.  In response to the U/S' concern for the safety 
of refugee women as they collect firewood and her suggestion that 
men should also search for wood, the chairlady of Dagahaley camp 
said selling firewood was one of the few ways for refugees to make 
money to meet their other needs and underscored the depth of the 
security problem by saying "if the women search for wood they will 
be raped, but if the men search for wood, they will be killed." 
Our contacts also reported substantial friction between the local 
Kenyan population and refugees, who many of the resident population 
view as receiving preferential treatment.  Camp authorities have 
sought to address this through community outreach and assistance 
efforts. 
 
 
 
¶7.      (SBU)  Representatives of seven NGOs operating in Dadaab 
highlighted the breath of the challenges in Dadaab by citing 
problems ranging from disposing the 300 metric tons of solid waste 
the camps produce each day to introducing family planning to a 
resistant population.  CARE, lead NGO for water delivery, said it 
urgently needed to replace the 22 ageing boreholes serving Dadaab 
as six were expected to collapse within the next two to six months 
and four new boreholes were needed to meet the minimum 
international standards for water availability per refugee per day. 
Representatives of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and FilmAid 
both attested to growing security threats: NRC reported restricting 
international staff to the UNHCR compound due to kidnapping threats 
against international aid workers and hearing rumors of armed 
groups in the camps, while FilmAid said its staff have experienced 
an increased intolerance from the refugees to the health and other 
messages it delivers in the camps.  The German Technical 
Cooperation (GTZ) reported that the camp birth rate is between 
300-400 children each month and is unlikely to diminish as Somalis 
are resistant to family planning messages.  The U/S confirmed that 
the USG will continue to press the GOK for additional space to 
relieve severe overcrowding and that we will remain a committed 
donor to refugee operations in Dadaab.  The U/S also remarked that 
the education of refugee children was insufficient and that 
ensuring the security of refugee women - particularly as they 
searched for firewood - had to be improved. 
RANNEBERGER