Facts and Figures

IOM Member State since 1985 Capital: Nairobi Population (2011): 41.6 million Area: 580,367 km sq Languages: Kiswahili, English Currency: Kenya Shilling (KES) GDP per Capita PPP (2010): USD 1,689 HDI Rank (2011): 143 of 187 Remittances (2011 estimate): USD 2,236 million Net Migration Rate (2010-2015): -0.2 migrants /1,000 population Immigrants (2010): 2.0% Women as a Percentage of Immigrants (2010): 50.8% Population under 15 (2011): 42.4% Adult HIV Prevalence (2009): 6%

Additional Resources International Migration Law Database National Instruments: Kenya Sources and Definitions

Latest News

• 100,000 Displaced Somalis Assisted By IOM To Reach Camps In Kenya And Ethiopia Since The Influx
• Thirty Thousand Somalis Given Shelter as IOM Pitches Last Tents at Camp in Kenya
• Migration Mapping Service between Somalia and Dadaab in Kenya Highlights Need for Better Protection of Drought and Famine Victims
• IOM Launches Community Livelihood Support in Northern Kenya
• IOM on Target to Complete Shelter Construction at IFO 2 in Kenya, Continues to Provide Transport and Health Assistance in Ethiopia

Overview

Kenya is hosting over 350,000 refugees with a growing influx from South-Central Somalia. Kenya is also documented as a hub for human trafficking and smuggling. During the post-election violence of 2008, an additional 300,000 people were displaced internally and consequently became vulnerable to various abuses, including human trafficking and smuggling. Kenya has also been identified as a source, transit, and destination country for irregular migrants who are largely overlooked in health responses. Labour migration opportunities are of high interest to the Government of Kenya. Numerous Kenyan trained physicians and nurses are working overseas and the Government of Kenya is exploring ways to capitalize on the skills and resources of diaspora communities abroad. Climate change has also been identified as a new migration challenge with an important impact on pastoralist communities' mobility pattern at the northern borders of Kenya.

In response to the aforementioned phenomenon, IOM has developed a country strategy in line with the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) for Kenya 2009–2013. IOM's response aims to: 1) tackle forced migration through refugees' repatriation and resettlement, emergency/crisis response and early recovery; 2) regulate migration through capacity-building in migration management, counter-trafficking, assisted voluntary returns, research, and migration health programmes; and 3) facilitate migration through cultural orientation and labour migration. In addition, IOM works closely with the Government of Kenya and takes active part in the work of the UN Country Team (UNCT).

Forced Migration

Resettlement. Due to its geographical location and porous borders, Kenya continues to host hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighboring countries in camps as well as in urban settings. Refugees in Kenya mainly originate from neighbouring countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Two refugee camps, Kakuma in North West of Kenya and Dadaab in the North East, host the largest number of refugees in Kenya. Since the early 1990s, IOM has been implementing a large scale resettlement programme, drawing many of its applicants from these sites. The Dadaab Refugee Camp has become the biggest refugee processing center for IOM in Kenya.

IOM Nairobi facilitates resettlement from Kenya to various destinations including the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and at least 10 European nations under governmental resettlement projects. Thousands of migrants are assisted each year. The movements are organized through IOM’s worldwide network of field offices in close collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other international agencies, governmental bodies, NGO’s and private sponsors.

IOM Nairobi assists with the resettlement of refugees who have been accepted by receiving countries through: processing of relevant documentation; medical screening and treatment; and by arranging safe, reliable and affordable transportation. To facilitate the integration of refugees into their new country and environment, language training and cultural orientation are offered prior to departure, at the request of receiving countries.

Main Project

• Refugee Resettlement Programme in Kenya

Migration, Climate Change and Environmental Degradation. Pastoralists living along the borders of Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda are losing their lives from increased cross-border resource-based armed conflicts. Depleted livestock, limited pasture and water from the cumulative effect of cyclic drought and the availability of small arms have resulted in an increase in pastoralists' cross-border movement in ways that are triggering violent armed cross-border conflict.

Drought, with its implications for water shortage and food insecurity, is currently the most significant climate-related hazard contributing to conflict and mass displacement in East and the Horn of Africa. Cattle rustling incidents have also increased in the region in recent months as owners seek to restock herds badly affected by the searing drought across east Africa.

As a response to this dire situation, IOM is partnering with UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Institute of Security Studies (ISS) in a regional initiative aiming to facilitate and highlight regional preparedness strategies to reduce the impact of drought-induced cross-border conflict amongst pastoralists' in the Horn of Africa. To do so, the project (1) promotes pastoralists internal and cross-border mobility needs as a climate change adaptation strategy; (2) advocates for regional cross-border security requirements to be reconciled with pastoralists' livelihood needs including cross-border mobility for access to water and pasture; and (3) supports concerned governments to develop a regional normative framework on migration and mobility for pastoralists that would enhance cross-border security.

Main Projects

• Mitigating Resource Based Conflict among Pastoralist Local Communities Including Refugee Host Community in Northern Kenya through Strengthening Youth Capacities to Adapt to Climate Change
• Emergency Livestock Support to Refugee Hosting Communities Affected by Protracted and Extreme Climatic Conditions in North West Kenya

Regulating Migration

Border Management. Kenya shares more than 4,000km of extremely porous borders with Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Sudan, and Tanzania. Some of these countries continue to experience armed conflict and natural disasters, thereby increasing the likelihood of irregular migration. Migrants cross over to Kenya in search of refuge and better livelihoods.

IOM is working in close collaboration with Kenya’s Ministry of Immigration and Registration of Persons in an effort to build the Ministry’s capacity to effectively manage migration. To this end, IOM drafted a National Migration Policy in November 2009 that has been forwarded to the Cabinet and to the Kenyan Parliament for debate and approval.

An immediate challenge facing the Government of Kenya’s immigration and national security agencies is the management of its long porous borders. The Government of Kenya has realized the importance of securing its borders and improving its capacity for service delivery in the migration sector.

In light of the efforts of the East Africa Community (EAC) and its partner states to establish a Common Market, IOM is proposing to enhance EAC capacity to deal with migration issues and to support the mainstreaming thereof in the operationalization of the Common Market Protocol that came into effect in July 2010. With a view towards establishing a permanent capacity on migration within the EAC, IOM is currently implementing a project that has established a migration desk within the EAC Secretariat.

Main Projects

• Enhancing the Capacity of the East Africa Community to Harmonize Migration Management and Allow Free and Safe Movement of Persons
• Capacity Building in Migration Management: Enhancing Migration Coordination & Safety in Kenya (Completed March 2011)

Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration. Assisted voluntary return and reintegration is one key migration management services that IOM offers to migrants and governments. When migrants are unable to stay in their host country, assisted voluntary return offers a humane and cost effective alternative to forced return. IOM’s objective is to provide enhanced support to facilitate the voluntary return and reintegration of migrants to their countries of origin.

IOM offers assisted return and reintegration services to stranded migrants and unsuccessful asylum seekers. Pre-departure medical assessment, transportation and post-arrival assistance is provided to unsuccessful asylum seekers, migrants in an irregular situation, migrants stranded in transit, and other persons wishing to return home but unable to do so by their own means.

Main Project

• Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration Programme (VARRP)

Counter-Trafficking. The Government of Kenya has achieved a milestone in the fight against human trafficking after President Mwai Kibaki signed into law new legislation to crack down on human traffickers and offer protection to trafficking victims in Kenya. The law which came into effect in December 2010 gives a 30-year jail term or a hefty fine of 30 million Kenyan Shillings (USD 370,000) for convicted traffickers.

The US Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report 2010 describes Kenya as a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labour and sexual exploitation. The report ranks Kenya as a Tier 2 country, among governments that are making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, which states that the purpose of combating human trafficking is to punish traffickers, to protect victims, and to prevent trafficking from occurring.

Trafficking in Kenya can be divided into two domains, internal and international trafficking.

• Internal trafficking deals with trafficking of persons from one part of the country to another, mostly from rural to urban in search of better opportunities in life. Main forms of exploitation as a result of internal trafficking are for purposes of domestic work and sexual exploitation.
• International trafficking occurs when victims cross an international border. Victims from Kenya usually are trafficked to Europe, North America and other parts of Africa where they are exploited.

IOM Kenya has developed and implemented projects to combat human trafficking which respond to human trafficking through prevention, protection and assistance to victims.

Main Project

• Regional Counter-Trafficking Project to Enhance Protection through Linkages and Cooperation among Neighbouring Countries in the East Africa Region (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda)

Facilitating Migration

Self-Paying and Sponsored Migrants. Self-paying and sponsored migrants form a category of migrants seeking to travel abroad for different reasons other than resettlement. IOM Nairobi provides assistance in facilitating migration for workers/professionals and students/trainees under organized and regular migration schemes. IOM also assists with improving existing processes to make it easier, more efficient and reliable for the migrants and the governments concerned.

For a small service fee IOM offers discounted one-way tickets; flexible re-booking conditions; cultural orientation; assistance with embarkation cards; travel kits; luggage tags and generous luggage allowance, and assistance in transit airports with a possibility to provide a transit visa waiver.

Family Reunification. IOM facilitates movement for migrants who have been approved to join their families or relatives abroad. To facilitate their movement, migrants may undergo health assessment as per the requirement of the receiving country, cultural orientation and finally depart to the country of destination.

An important feature of family reunification is the preparation of migrants for their move to a new country through pre-departure health assessments as may be required by the host country. In 2010 IOM Nairobi facilitated the travel of 1,810 individuals under the family reunification programmes to different countries around the world. Most of them are family members of refugees or asylum seekers who were already resettled before from East Africa.

For family reunification cases travelling under IOM auspices, the following procedure is followed to facilitate their movement:

• Original visa or travel document is sent to IOM by the embassy of the receiving country.
• IOM sends the documents to the Department of Immigration where exit permit is applied for.
• Although not a must under family reunification, cultural orientation may be provided as required by the host country, to better prepare the migrant into settling their new community.
• Family reunification cases arrive at the IOM office and get transportation to the airport. Once there they proceed with all regular procedures for an international departure (check-in, customs, immigration, and other formalities).

Cultural Orienatation. Refugees approved for resettlement often migrate to countries where tradition, values and cultural practices are perceivably different from their own. This can be a challenging experience without prior preparation.

IOM, under its cultural orientation programme, prepares migrants for their new lives in receiving countries. Cultural orientation equips the migrants with the necessary tools to deal with the initial integration concerns and the varying stages of cultural, social and economic adaptation. Cultural orientation in IOM is divided into four programmes:

• Canadian Orientation Abroad
• Australian Cultural Orientation
• Cultural Orientation for the United Kingdom
• Labour Migration Cultural Orientation (for Kenyan migrants going to work in the Middle East)

Main Project

• Cultural Orientation Programme for Migrants

Migration and Development

Orderly international migration management calls for sound national government capacity to plan, development and manage migration related strategies. Institutional aspects of migration include the legal instruments regulating it and the organizations and officials enforcing them. In this context, governments need to be aware of the labour migration dynamics of their nationals, such as push and pull factors for outward migration flows.

Population movements from Kenya have been characterized by high flows of qualified nationals as well as irregular migration towards the developed countries. The Government of Kenya considers labour migration a national priority. However, many Kenyans seeking employment abroad have become victims of human trafficking and smuggling and often find themselves being exploited by unscrupulous employers due to lack of information and government support to ensure genuine and fair employment.

In the wider context of understanding Kenya’s labour migration concerns, IOM is working closely with the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development, upon their request, providing technical assistance to enhance the Ministry’s capacity to facilitate and regulate labour migration, particularly in the Department of Human Resources Management and Employment.

The notable achievement in this collaboration has been the adoption of e-government as a means of capturing data and sharing information on labour migration. Since 2009, IOM has assisted the Ministry with the following: develop its website for the National Employment Bureau, which is the Department responsible for Labour Migration; provide the Ministry with a server that will assist to manage the website database; develop databases for skills inventory, Diaspora profiles, labour market information from employers and private employment agencies’ interface with the Department; develop a draft labour migration policy and established a Labour Migration Unit at the National Employment Bureau. In partnership with the Ministry, IOM also conducted a pilot survey of the Diaspora dynamics in the United Kingdom.

Main Project

• Establishment of a Labour Migration Unit at the Ministry of Labour and the Creation of Tools for the Assessment of Dynamics of Labour Migration in Kenya and of the Kenyan Diaspora (completed February 2011) | Website

Cross-Cutting Issues

Regional and International Cooperation. There is a growing need to encourage regional dialogue within East Africa and the Horn of Africa due to the increase in mobility of populations. It is equally important to facilitate dialogue on emerging migration challenges in the region to ensure that migration management in the community is harmonized in East Africa and the Horn of Africa. IOM is in a position to facilitate regional dialogues and consultative fora both under the aegis of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the EAC (East African Community, Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda) and at bilateral or trilateral levels.

Main Project

• Enhancing the Capacity of the East Africa Community to Harmonize Migration Management and Allow Free and Safe Movement of Persons

Last updated:
Main text: June 2011
Facts and figures: May 2012