Kenya enacts refugee friendly law

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed into law a new refugee bill that allows asylum seekers easier access to education, and opportunities to integrate and earn a living. It comes just six months before a planned shutdown by the authorities of two camps housing more than half a million refugees. The authorities say the camps have been used as breeding grounds for terrorists blamed for some of the worst attacks on Kenyan soil. Kenya has been in a protracted struggle with the UN refugee agency over plans to shut down the Kakuma and Daadab refugee camps that for decades, have been home to half a million refugees mainly from Somalia and South Sudan.
In September, the President rejected an earlier bill that sought to compel the state to provide housing and social amenities to refugees at special transit centres.