GARISSA, Kenya , Apr 8 2026 (IPS) – In 2006, Amina Saida was only two years old when her parents moved to the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya, near the border with Somalia.<\/p>\n
The Dadaab refugee complex was established in 1991, when refugees fleeing the civil war in Somalia began crossing the border into Kenya. Over the years, thousands of Kenyan ethnic Somalis entered the refugee camp with the sole aim of accessing food aid, healthcare, and free education provided to refugees, while others saw an easier avenue of securing asylum and passage to the US and other European nations.<\/p>\n
Just like Amina, thousands of Kenyan Somalis were taken into the refugee camp as children without their consent, and today they are trapped in a painful paradox of officially being recorded as refugees in Kenyan government databases and denied recognition as citizens of Kenya.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was told that my fingerprints were appearing in the refugee database when I went to apply for my national identity card in 2022. The registrar of persons informed me that they could not grant me an ID because I was from Somalia,\u201d said Amina.<\/p>\n
Amina told IPS that despite presenting her parents\u2019 Kenyan identification cards to the registrar of persons, she has yet to receive the vital document.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am still waiting and hoping,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n