NAIROBI, (BERNAMA-NNN-KBC) — Kenya’s Parliament has summoned the Cabinet Secretaries (Ministers) for Foreign Affairs, Amina Mohammed, and Interior, Joseph Nkaissery, to explain why the government wants to repatriate hundreds of thousands refugees at the giant Dadaab Camp in northeastern Kenya back to Somalia.

The Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights has asked the House Committees on Defence and Foreign Relations to question the two Cabinet Secretaries on the planned repatriation of the refugees.

Last week, Nkaissery said the complex which houses more than 350,000 Somali immigrants, would be completely shut and the refugees repatriated by the end of the year. He said a team of specialists was working on a timetable for the repatriation based on the resources available.

Nkaissery maintained that Dadaab, which lies near the Kenya-Somalia border, has been used by radical Somali Islamist groups to launch terrorist attacks, such as the Westgate Shopping Mall attack in Nairobi in 2013 and the Garissa University College attack last year and that there was an urgent need to close it down.

Nkaissery said only the Dadaab complex would be closed while the Kakuma refugee camp, another huge refugee complex, in northwestern Kenya would continue operating because it did not present a security risk.

Kenya is currently hosting more than 600,000 refugees and has been doing so for more than a quarter of a century.

Source: BERNAMA-NNN-KBC