A Little Bit About Those Refugee Camps in Kenya

Originally posted on April 30, 2019 at DaTechGuy Blog.

With two Somali-Americans – Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-5) and Sports Illustrated “swimsuit” model Halima Aden — being in the news of late, I think it’s important to dispense some information about a singular part of their backgrounds.

Both spent their childhoods in Kenyan refugee camps.

If you recall, the last time a person whose lineage was from that part of the world became famous, a lot of made-up information (read: lies) was spread around and, over a decade later, I still see some of it. Therefore, I’d like to get out a little ahead of information on the refugee camps, or, at least run alongside of it.

I don’t intend for this to be any kind of expose on the camps — kind of difficult to do anything like that from my living room in Los Angeles — nor is this an opinion piece about the women. I’ve made my opinions about Omar plain, and, as for Aden’s SI hijab-burkini debut, I’m agnostic on the topic other than the fact that I think that swimming in full hijab might be dangerous. Also, she seems like a nice young lady.

My only purpose here is to provide accurate information available from open sources about the camps .

From World of Camps:

The Dadaab refugee camp complex is situated in northeastern Kenya, near the border with Somalia. Until early 2017, it consisted of five refugee camps. However, one of the camps, Kambioos, which was also the newest, was recently closed as refugees began returning to Somalia and the few remaining moved into the other camps.

Dadaab was established in the year 1991 following the beginning of the civil war in Somalia. Somalis were forced to flee as the war worsened, leaving to neighbouring countries including Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan.

The Dadaab Complex consists of five smaller camps: Dagahaley, Hagadera, Ifo, Ifo II and Kambioos. The latter two camps were opened in 2011 when more Somalians fled their country to escape drought and subsequent famine.

Who manages and funds these camps? Why, the UN, of course. Its Twitter feed is here. And there are many more foreign agencies involved.

Kenya has been trying to shut down this complex and repatriate its inhabitants since 2013.

From Kenya’s Daily Nation:

[T]he camp situated in Garissa county has been the centre of protracted negotiations between the Kenya government, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Somalia.

This will be the fourth attempt to close it.

In 2013, the three parties had signed a tripartite agreement to source funds, prepare the ground back in Somalia and facilitate the voluntary return of refugees. Those who accepted were to be given a stipend and other support.

But refugees seem to have shied away from this programme. Figures from UNHCR show that the number of refugees who left the camp on their own is more than those who went under the guided programme.

In 2014, there were about 350,000 refugees. Today, the camp hosts 210,556 refugees, of which 202,381 are from Somalia.

By their own law, the Kenyans are prohibited from simply throwing the refugees out, which is good because I suspect that they’ve had enough of the Somalis.

Back to our two subject personalities.

Omar, 37, was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. She and her family spent four of her childhood years in the Dadaab complex. She entered the United States in 1992 and became an American citizen in 2000.

Aden, 21, was born in a camp called Kakuma, which is not part of the Dadaab complex. It is located

Halima Aden. Cite.

on the opposite end of Kenya and, therefore much further away from the Kenya-Somalia border than is Dadaab. She and her family came to America when she was six. I can only find one article mentioning her citizenship; the writer assumes that she is an American citizen.

As we know, the largest concentration of Somali refugees and Somali-Americans in the USA is in Minnesota, which is where both women live.

And here’s a little more opining from me: regardless of what one thinks of either woman, it is for certain that they both hit the jackpot.

ADDENDUM:

Dadaab gains a new benefactor.

The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) [of Saudi Arabia] is set to open a regional relief office in Kenya that will aid refugees in the Dadaab Refugee Camp.

According to the General Supervisor of the Center Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabiah, the organization will also provide urgent food and medical assistance to Kenyans facing starvation.

He stated that last year, it distributed over 1,200 tonnes of relief food aid to the Dadaab refugees after the UN cut funding and food aid ratio for the 3 refugee camps of Ifo, Hagadera and Dagahaley. [Ed note: It appears that there are more camps in the complex than are named in some sources. JAO]

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, MeWe, Patreon and Social Quodverum

When you hit the Tip Jar, it helps pays for: A Roof Over My Head, Food, Gasoline, Car Insurance, the writing of My Next Book(s), and Utilities--especially Internet and COFFEE! Yes, coffee is a utility.

New Donation Method: Cash App.
$jbaldilocks

Become a Patron!

Why I Was Hesitant to Blog About Obama When He Was President

As conservative activist Candace Owens is finding out right now, it’s a dangerous thing to provide personal information – even to a friend. Though I have been blogging for some time under the nom de guerre 'baldilocks,' I’ve never concealed my real name. But, even when I have revealed personal stuff, I took some comfort in the fact that each member of the American side of my family has a different last name than I do. Even considering that, I did ask Mom’s permission before posting this story.

It’s a matter I consider over and over again whenever I talk about personal matters – much more so than when I first started blogging. There’s a specific reason for this.

Yesterday, President Trump say that he would pardon conservative writer and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza. That made me happy and it made me think about the fact that I’m slightly acquainted with Dinesh because I was slated to appear in his documentary 2016: Obama’s America.


Why? Because I am a mirror image of a president.

I started this blog 2003. Then, in 2004, an Illinois state senator named Barack H. Obama gave the Democrat National Convention keynote address. I had never heard of him before that, so I did a little reading and discovered something amazing: his father was Kenyan – of the Luo tribe -- and his mother was American.

What was so amazing about that?

That is my exact same ethnic make-up and, before he came along, I had never met anyone else who had that same parentage. But that “coincidence” barely scratched the surface of those to follow.

• I was born in August of 1961.
• My biological father is Kenyan and of the Luo tribe; my mother is American.
• My parents met when both were attending the same American college.
• My parents divorced when I was very young; afterward, my father returned to Kenya.
• For half of my childhood, I was raised by older relatives of my mother.
• My mother suffered from ovarian cancer.
• My maternal grandmother died in 2008.
• One of my "half" sisters is nine years younger than I am. She is married to a man of a different race than she.
• I am left-handed.

Barack Obama and I have all these things in common.

And then there are all the disparities.

• I am a woman.
• I am a conservative.
• I was raised by my great-aunt and great-uncle in the first half of my childhood. President Obama was raised by his grandparents in the last half of his minor years.
• Barack Obama’s mother, and, therefore, his grandmother, were white. My maternal grandmother was “one-drop-rule” black. (In reality, Grandma had a white appearance, but both of her parents had some black ancestry.)
• My mother survived ovarian cancer; Former President Obama’s mother did not.
• My mother, biological father, and “step” father are all living; his have all passed away.

One might call some of these symmetric disparities.

And then there was the discovery that my biological father -- Philip Ochieng-- and Barack Obama Sr. had been friends. This was something that was all over the news in 2008 and, therefore, Dinesh flew to Kenya to interview my father for a segment in Obama’s America. And it’s the reason that Dinesh reached out to me and asked me to appear as well.

My part was filmed but ended up on the cutting room floor. Dinesh said that test audiences were confused about who I was.

Honestly? I was relieved.

Why? Because I knew that Barack Obama was perfectly capable of taking down anyone he or his handlers deemed threatening. I wasn’t worried about myself, but I do have a large family on two continents that I love.

The persecution and prosecution of Dinesh D’Souza confirmed my conclusion and there are several other examples of the former president’s vindictiveness, including his weaponization of the IRS against conservative not-for-profit groups

Many who knew about the Obama parallel suggested that I write a book about it, but I resisted that notion and I’m glad I did. I find the whole thing a tad boring now – it was hard enough to get motivated to compose this post. I’m over myself … mostly.

But Dinesh's impending pardon and the slow reveal that the Obama Administration probably okayed the spying operation on the Trump candidacy reminded me of my fear.

Besides, when he got elected, I figured that my job was done and that I had failed. But I also had this in mind:
 
“You’ll see.” (I'm old enough to remember being called racist -- against white people -- for surmising that, if Barack Obama became president, America wouldn't elect another black president for 100 years. Ah, the good old days!)

And we did see. We all saw what Barack Obama tried to do to this country and we are still seeing it.

Am I afraid now? No, but the new administration has little to do with my lack of fear.

I am much further along in my relationship with Christ and I have experienced things which I would have never thought I could handle without losing my mind, including the loss of nearly all material possessions and homelessness. I found out that the promises outlined in Psalm 91 are valid.

When one hangs his/her being out into the public anything can happen to your body, your personal belongings and your reputation. But if you ask for God's protection, your soul is unreachable and you have nothing to fear.

If there's anything for which I am grateful to Barack Obama, it's that. 
When you hit the Tip Jar, it helps pays for: A Roof Over My Head, Food, Gasoline, Car Insurance, the writing of My Next Book(s), and Utilities--especially Internet and COFFEE! Yes, coffee is a utility.

Researching Kenya's War on Terror

Many of you know that I have accelerated the writing of my second novel, Arlen’s Harem. February 1^st was the original date target, then March 1^st. Well, it looks like the target date will have to be moved again. I hope my supporters are okay with that.

I’m taking a short break from it to do some research on and write about Kenya’s role in the War on Terror, as requested by one of my readers. And this is something which may have a dual purpose, as it could be a part of a longer work about my father’s home country.

Now that Barack Obama has galloped off into the sunset, there might not be that much interest in the country anymore. However, for obvious reasons, I’m still interested and I hope that a few others are as well.

To begin a small primer on the topic, start with Kenya's Dadaab. It's the largest refugee camp in the world and the refugees are, primarily, Somalis--both in the ethnic and citizenship sense.

Dadaab

Every Tuesday and Saturday, I blog at the award-winning Da Tech Guy Blog Latest Blog post: The Social Justice War on Blacks and Browns.

This is my JOB. It pays for: A Roof Over My Head, the writing of My Next Book(s), and Utilities--especially Internet and COFFEE! Yes, coffee is a utility.

Donate to Baldilocks

Subscribe to Baldilocks

In Memoriam: Jeniffer Dawa Ochieng

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
--Matthew 5:4

It’s a somber and sober day. I found out this morning that Jeniffer Dawa Ochieng, wife of my Kenyan father, passed away. She had been in grave health for some time—suffering from complications of diabetes and hypertension--and when I went to Kenya this year to meet her and the rest of the family for the first time, she was bedridden and unable to speak. My sisters, Lucy Adhiambo and Judith Aluoch helped my father to see to her needs. I never got to meet her healthy and whole and I’m saddened by that.

Jeniffer Dawa Ochieng

I know what my Kenyan family is feeling; for half my childhood I was raised by my great-uncle and great-aunt, John and Alma Simpkins; both died of cancer and were invalids before they passed, in 2000 and 2012, respectively. Before the decline, both had been vital, active and loving and when they died I was relieved that they were free from pain, but a part of me wished I could have them back, healthy and whole, and…so I could have a chance to be a better daughter. The selfishness impulse is never far from any of us.

My other parents, Philip Ochieng, Nova Dorn, and Johnny Dorn, are all in their 70s and relatively hale. Mom has battled the beast called cancer twice and is still with us and cancer-free, but being in America certainly tipped the scales in her favor.

This type of loss goes hardest on the grandchildren. As we get older, say, past 40, we more or less accept the fact that we will outlive our parents. It is, of course, the order of life. But to the grandchildren, it is an especially rough introduction to adulthood, especially if the grandparent is greatly beloved, as appears so with Miss Jeniffer (spelling correct). My niece, Jeniffer Atieno--the eldest of my nieces and nephews on both sides of the Atlantic--is taking this loss especially hard.

And then there’s my father, Philip. I still don’t know him well enough to gage how he handles grief. He has had a lot of it in recent years; he is the last of his siblings and he is not the youngest of them. But it isn’t difficult to guess what it’s like to lose a life-partner of half a century.

My brother, Charles Otieno, the only son of Philip and Jeniffer, is three years my junior. From reading his Facebook posting about his mother’s death, he is taking his responsibilities as the male heir seriously, but I pray that he doesn’t fail to sit down for a minute or two and simply mourn…and rejoice in God.

A cool thing about my tribe: due to the fact that it is traditionally polygamous, there are no separations between families. My American parents are considered the parents of my Kenyan siblings; my American siblings are also the siblings of the Kenyans, and so on. (This concept remains so, even though Philip has eschewed polygamy, preferring the Western tradition of one legal wife at a time.) I love it, and it is one of the many reasons that I rarely use the prefix ‘step,’ except for clarification purposes--when I don’t have time to explain my very complicated family situation.

So it is, under Luo tradition, that my mother has died. For obvious reasons, I don’t feel the pain of her absence, but I greatly empathize with my brother, my sisters, and all other family members who love Mother.

Godspeed, Mother Jeniffer! I look forward to the day that we sit and talk and laugh about the day we were so sad that you were gone, only to discover that you are living forever in Christ. That will be a Great Day, indeed.

This is my JOB. It pays for: A Roof Over My Head, the writing of My Next Book(s), and Utilities--especially Internet and COFFEE! Yes, coffee is a utility.

Donate to Baldilocks

Fun Story

Note: My trip to Kenya to see my biological father and meet the rest of my family has been postponed to February 21^st and cut down to one week.

My American dad--as opposed to my Kenyan one--works part-time as a host in an Albuquerque hotel. Dad is an excellent cook, just as good at presentation and, best of all, a people person.

One day, a few years ago, he hosted a lunch for a group of Kenyans. After they finished their meal, he came over to their table to do his host thing. They were pleased and he had a fun conversation with them.

“You all are Kenyan, correct?”

“Yes.”

“From the Luo tribe, right?” They looked at him quizzically.

“Yes. How did you know?”

“Because my daughter is Luo.”

Dad says that they all looked at him like, “Ni**a, you ain’t no Luo.”

When he laughed and explained the situation to them, they said he was pretty much a member of the tribe and invited him to sit down and have a drink with them, but, of course, he couldn’t.

When Dad told me this story, I asked him how he knew they were Luo. He said that they all looked just like me.

I just shook my head and, at first, Dad thought I was offended.

“No Dad, it’s not that. Sometimes, when a person asks me about the origin of my name, they’ll also ask if I’ve ever been to Kenya. When I tell them that I haven’t and they ask why not, sometimes I’ll tell them that every Kenyan I’ve ever met looked just like me and I’m afraid that if I go there, they might not let my black ass come back home!”

I guess we’ll find out if this is the case or not soon enough.

Related: My trip makes the Kenya news.

Don't forget: every Tuesday and Saturday, I blog at the award-winning DaTechGuyBlog--including during the Kenya Trip. Tuesday's post: Battle Account in the PC Wars.

Please contribute to Juliette’s Projects: A Roof Over My Head, my new novel, this blog, and my Internet--to keep them going and to the COFFEE fund to keep me going!

One Week Before Take-Off (UPDATED)

UPDATE: My trip has been postpone for a week. I leave on the 21st.

ORIGINAL: A couple of years ago, I started the Kenya Project. It was intended to assist Americans in understanding Kenya and, because of my heritage I felt that I was in a unique position to do it. Well now, the Republic of Kenya and I will actually meet in person for the first time.

Before, I felt that it was important for us to see what Kenya really is--especially the Luo tribe--since both President Obama and I stem from that ethnic group. And though his presidency will end in less than a year, I still think that I may be able to bring some truth to the distortions which still circle about regarding the country and its people.

I’m no trained travel writer or historian, to be sure, but I wasn’t a novelist when I set out to write my novel. So take those things into account.

I’ll be staying in the country for two weeks. I’m a bit apprehensive, since this will be the first time I’ve traveled abroad to a Third World country. Sure, I went to Germany and Japan at the behest of the USAF, but the military creates a huge safety net for its non-combatants in other countries and, to be honest, Germany and Japan are incredibly safe—well, at least Germany was safe back in the good old days of the Cold War. Now?

For those who don’t know, this trip and the lodging was a gift from a friend of my blogs whom I will name when he gives me permission. This gift is emblematic of how my life has gone in the past few years: great trials topped off with tremendous blessings.

So the Kenya Project is back on. Back when I started the Project, I had high aims, but they are more modest now. I just want to look, listen, take pictures, write about it, and pass it along to my small reading public. Of course, the most tremendous part if the trip will be to meet many members of my family for the first time, and to see my father, Philip Ochieng, face-to-face for the first time in almost 55 years.

There are some things that I will need to pay for while I’m there: food, transportation, and Internet time. There is Wi-Fi in my hotel, but it isn’t free and when I’m away from there, it’s only available in dedicated cafes, as my brother, Charles Otieno Ochieng, tells me. So please feel free to donate to my PayPal account. I also have a Kenya Wishlist on Amazon with a mere few items on it. The item I need most is a camera. Otherwise I'll have to settle for photos taken with my Coolpad phone.

UPDATE: I have restarted my Go Fund Me Campaign.

Don't forget: every Tuesday and Saturday, I blog at the award-winning DaTechGuyBlog--including during the Kenya Trip. Saturday's post: Natural Maintenance.

Please contribute to Juliette’s Projects: Kenya Trip, A Roof Over My Head, my new novel, this blog, and my Internet--to keep them going and to the COFFEE fund to keep me going!

The Kenya Project: Updates and Links--January 2, 2014

I've added the information from my Kenya Project of five years ago to my Kenya Project: Who and What page. That project occurred when I took it upon myself to find out what the bases were for the country's civil conflict of that year. What a can of worms that was! (BTW, it was not some epic Islam versus Christianity battle the way some seemed to think. That's happening in other African countries, however--Nigeria, for example.) Anyway, go check it out. Suggestions are welcome.

And here are some links related to the current Kenya Project.

Historical facts about Somalia’s relationship with its Neighbours
Uhuru Assures Kenyans of Better Times Ahead
Three months after Westgate Mall siege
Mogadishu Blasts
AMISOM condemns attack
The complete, concise history of al-Shabaab, the group behind the Kenyan mall attack
Shabaab Militants Draw money from East Africa’s underworld (a pictorial)
Somali Militants Mixing Business and Terror