Assistant Minister Mohammed Abdi Affey yesterday called for an urgent repatriation
of all Somali refugees. Speaking
at Wajir's Baraza Park during an educational funds drive, Mr Affey, of Foreign
Affairs and International Co-operation, said the refugees should return home because
Somalia now has a government.
He appealed to the Government and the UN High Commission for Refugees to facilitate
repatriation, saying their presence had overstretched Kenya's ailing economy.
North-Eastern
leaders and the provincial administration often point an accusing finger at Garissa's
Dadaab and Ifo refugee camps for infiltration of illegal firearms and banditry.
Mr Affey, who
is also Wajir South MP, said all Somali refugees should voluntarily return home
to participate in reconstructing their country.
On the drought, he urged the Government and the World Food Programme to distribute
relief food to the local secondary schools, saying they were faced with closure.
Most parents, he said, could not afford to pay fees as livestock, the main source
of livelihood, were dying due from of pasture and water. | 
