June 21 Speeches Compiled by Tolossa Asrat – KANERE Staff Volunteer Writer, 2022
World Refugee Day 2022 ceremony commemorated at Kalobeyei village 2 with the theme of ensuring every person has the right to seek safety whoever they are, wherever they come from and whenever they are forced to flee.
During the commemoration, various guests including Government representatives, UNHCR County representatives, UNHCR partners and other humanitarian organization representatives, goodwill Ambassador Yiech Pur Biel, refugee leaders from Kakuma and the new settlement attended and made speeches at the event in Kalobeyei settlement, Village 2.
For our fellow refugees, who did not get the chance to attend the event, we managed to transcribe speeches made by representatives from the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Department for Refugees Service (DRS).
“Good afternoon,
Madam Winnie Guchu- the chief administrator secretary ministry of interior and coordination of the national government, Our distinguished guest of honour today Mr.Lucas Katee Mwanza, the Commissioner for refugee services, Department of Refugees service, The County commissioner, excellencies, all representatives of the government of Kenya, representative of the county government of Turkana, goodwill Ambassador, Pur Biel, Members of the refugee and the host communities, UNHCR partners and UNHCR colleges, ladies and gentlemen.
Today is World Refugee Day – a day to honour the courage, strength and contribution of the millions of people around the world who have been forced to flee their homes due to violence, war or persecution. It is a day to remember that will help by welcoming communities and neighbours, people can rebuild their lives and their networks and even thrive. This is also a day when we honour refugees who bring with them their cultures, their unique experiences and their hope all of this makes communities stronger and more vibrant.
Our DRS College just mentioned that recently we marked a great milestone. The number of people forced to flee conflict, war, persecution and human rights abuses crossed the 100 million mark for the first time on record.
By being here today, you have shown that you stand with refugees and that you are committed to solving the problems at the root of this displacement, violence and persecution.
The theme of this year’s world refugee day is every person has the right to seek safety, whoever they are, wherever they come from and whenever they are forced to flee. This theme speaks to the core of UNHCR’s mandate and who we are.
We all share the responsibility to protect people seeking safety and to safeguard the following five principles led out in international law. The right to asylum, ensuring safe access, ensuring that no one is pushed back to a country where their lives or freedom would be threatened, no discrimination and like all human beings ensuring that people forced to flee are treated with dignity and respect.
Kenya has a long-standing history of spending some three decades welcoming and offering protection to refugees.
During the Covid -19 pandemic, Kenya has demonstrated how it can protect public health while simultaneously protecting the right to seek asylum. Quarantine centers were set up right here in the camps to ensure that those seeking protection could access them while also protecting fellow refugees and Kenyan communities from exposure to the virus.
It is our collective responsibility to ensure that people have access to asylum but our responsibility does not end there. People who have been forced to flee homes and almost everything else behind needs a chance to rebuild which means letting newcomers go to school, find work, go to a doctor, seek mental health services and thrive.
Today we are homered to be joined by Pur Biel, UNHCR goodwill ambassador and former refugee who was forced to flee South Sudan at the age of 10. In Kenya, Pour was given the opportunity to practice what he loves –RUNNING right here in his former home of Kakuma. After cultivating his talent in Kakuma, Pour made history by competing for the first-ever refugee team in Rio, in 2016 and was selected as a team leader for the refugee Olympic team in Tokyo 2020.
Earlier this year, he was also elected as a member of the international Olympic committee becoming the first refugee to join the organization.
Pur, you are a true athlete and role model for many refugees and young people.
It is our responsibility to ensure that those who are forced to flee can re- bullied their lives free from discrimination. We must continue to welcome them as equal partners in creating long-term solutions for the chance to return home and be safe to do so to integrate locally or in the most urgent cases to resettle to a third country.
The Government of Kenya recently enacted the refugees act 2021 and taken a progressive decision to shift from a policy of enactment to integrated settlements ensuring that both refugees and communities hosting them mutually benefit.
We commend the government of Kenya for its achievement and tireless effort to safeguard refugee rights from seeking safety to realizing comprehensive long-lasting durable solutions. Asante Sana, the government and the people of Kenya.
On behalf of UNHCR Kenya, I strongly believe that everyone has the right to seek safety whoever they are, wherever they come from whenever they nodded.
Thank you very much,
Asante Sana.” – Caroline Van Buren – UNHCR Kenya Country Representative
“Good afternoon, I will have just a few words to say. One is to appreciate the chief guest and to appreciate the UNHCR country rep for accepting to come and team up with our county commissioner and ourselves and the refugees, our brothers and sisters from different countries in Africa and the world. Thank you very much.
As we celebrate this brotherhood today and the sisterhood of our fellow Africans, fellow human beings from different parts of the country who live here. I want to appreciate it a lot.
Secondly, I would like to thank the organizers of this event. You have done very very well. We have seen a lot of dances and indeed Yes to be a refugee doesn’t mean that you forget everything that you have done in the past and is not forget the culture.
You are at home. You are in a brother’s home. Thank you very much for those beautiful dances that we have seen from different groups of the host communities and the refugees who are here.
I want also to take this opportunity to appreciate the county government of Turkana led by governor Nanok and his team for the support and the host community for the support that you have extended to our brothers and sisters who live here and live here very hormonally with yourselves, thank you very much indeed the people of Turkana led by your leaders. Asanteni Sana.
I will also thank the UNHCR for its cooperation with the Department of Refugees in offering services to the refugees in various parts of the country and especially the refugees who are here in this Kakuma and Kalobeyei settlement area.
Thank you very much for the cooperation and I request that that cooperation continues between our organizations that will go a very long way in assisting our brothers and sisters who live in this area.
Secondly, I want to commit that we continue offering the services to the refugees as we have done and we will seek to improve our services every day and in every encounter with the refugees that we serve.
We commit ourselves that we are going to improve in the registration, I know we had a backlog that has not been addressed for some time. We do everything to ensure that we clear that backlog in the determination of the status of refugees. So, we commit ourselves to doing everything to clear those backlogs. At the same time, we continue protecting the refugees in the country and continue engaging in continuous activities to empower the refugees in various ways as they continue living here until things get better in their countries of origin.
As a department, we will be serving you with a lot of transparency and openness feel free to approach us anytime. Any time any of our officers are open and available to you so that they can be able to serve you to guide you when you are in the country.
It is important for anybody who is not registered to come forward and present themselves for registration by our officers here based in Kakuma Refugee camp. Those who are coming because some of them you may know also, pass the same information immediately that somebody crosses the border and enters into the country, please let them present themselves to the nearest government offices so that they can start the registration process as a refugee.
Thank you very much, we continue to implement programs together, programs like this one, we are happy that the partners with the Department of Refugees have taken bold steps forward to assist the refugees in this area in various ways a quite number of organizations both governmental, nongovernmental and humanitarian organizations who assisting refugees in this area and I want to know also thank them for the great job they are doing to support the refugees.
Lastly, please let us abide by the law, once we abide by the law, certainly you will be able to develop together and progress and become self-reliant. Once more thank you very much to each and every one of us led by our chief gust.
Thank you.”
Speech by Katee Mwanza – Department of Refugee Service, Commissioner for Refugees.