By KANERE’s News Desk
Five UN staff indicted for fraud are airlifted to Nairobi for investigation.
Corruption in Kakuma has involved at least five UN staff in an investigation after a victim blew the whistle on the deal before it matured.
The five UN officials and two refugee staff were transferred to Nairobi to be investigated by UNHCR’s branch office for Kenya in October, 2016.
The five UN officials were from the protection, resettlement and community service unit in Kakuma’s UNHCR Sub-Office. The two refugee workers were both interpreters who are engaged by UNHCR on an incentive payment.
In accordance with United Nations policy, all services offered to refugees are free of charge including: shelter provision, refugee status determination and resettlement abroad. However, this is not the reality in every program run by UNHCR and other implementing partners in Kakuma.
Residents have complained about the rampant cases of fraud, theft of shelter material and police bribes in almost every sector of services delivered in the camp over many years. There are at least a dozen new fraud cases and rumours circulating around the communities in the camp but there has been no independent agency that could bravely come out to share the information with the media or shame the awful actions.
KANERE has approached UNHCR Kakuma on the matter and the protection unit was not ready to disclose information on the scary scandal at the heart of Kakuma.
It’s often a kind of norm that the UNHCR’s response to the accusation of fraud is to send the staff involved in the scandals to different locations, or rarely to sack them from their jobs.
Nevertheless, KANERE noted that there are really great people who work hard to curb the menace of corruption within the UNHCR operation, while there are many corrupt officials who frustrate the process of investigation.
On a swift investigation KANERE learnt that some of the witnesses and informants have been transferred to Uganda by UNHCR thereby increasing the difficulty of investigating the truth.
Stay tuned for a more in-depth coverage about the fraud cases which will be covered in the subsequent edition of KANERE.
5 replies on “Kakuma fraud”
It ‘s a sham where you may find a person stay almost 7 years or more with out UNHCR mandate or ID from Kenya government. Can someone talk about this dangerous thing on behave of Kakuma refugees? Hope.
even this news paper is part of this scandal
Kashi, how do you even say, forget about importance of newspaper like Kanere in this old camp of corruption. It’s the only organized refugee voice but it can not be part of this scandal. How you feed on rations today? My name is Amina.
ITS THE PART OF SCANDAL AND THERES NO THOUGHOUT ON THIS BECAUSE THERES NAKED EVIDENCE CONCERNING THIS MAY BE YOU ARE NEW IN THAT WORK IF YOU ARE NOT AGREE WITH ME I WILL POST THEM HERE
Good, I think you can expose the evidence you have Kashi. For me that is ok and its what i want to know but I think you can also send them to this website for magazine release? Do you live in Kakuma or Nairobi?