EMOJONG OSERE

KAMPALA

DISPLACED Kenyan refugees from Kikuyu community qualified as teachers may have reason to celebrate as some of them have been recruited to teach in nursery and primary schools in Eastern Uganda.

This was revealed by the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Uganda, Ms Yumiko Takashima.  She said, Save the Children Uganda, a non governmental organisation, is expected to pay the teachers.  The move is aimed at making the refugees self-reliant.

Ms Takashima said secondary school teachers will not benefit from the offer due to inadequate funds.

“We have secured funds for paying people who will be teaching in local primary and nursery schools,” Ms Takashima told Daily Nation on February 16. She said the organisation was determined to help the displaced persons until calm returns to their country.

There was, however, an unclear fate for teachers in other camps in the Eastern region as beneficiaries were those camped at Mulanda, about 30 kilometres from the border town of Malaba.  

There are currently more than 7,000 Kenyan refugees camped at Mulanda, Busia town, Manafwa, Bukwa and Kapchorwa.  Those camped at Mulanda were transferred from St. Jude Primary School in Malaba due to inadequate accommodation.

She said the organisation had also secured enough food for the refugees at Mulanda camp but decried the insufficient health facilities since they are compelled to take patients to Tororo District Hospital, some 20 kilometres away.

Sent by JK

———————

As always, thank you for the information JK.  Meanwhile Luo asylum-seekers in Tanzania have not even been granted refugee status…  There is a very clear discrepancy in the way that Kikuyu refugees have been treated by the UNHCR and the way that Luo refugees are being treated. 

We are happy for these Kikuyu refugees but disappointed that tribalism has become so rampant in the UNHCR and in east African countries like Tanzania and Uganda.  We do not hate the victims, but we do hate a system that continues the inequity that has caused many of Kenya’s current problems.  As we have said before, this is just more evidence that western powers (the UN) and Kenya’s economic allies have almost no consideration for the plight of Luos.     

Here is a link to the story about the Kikuyu refugees who will be given employment.  NOTE: In the “updated” version, the ethnicity of these refugees is not mentioned.   

http://allafrica.com/stories/200802190121.html

For more on the plight of a group of Luo refugees in Tanzania, please see the links below:

http://jaluo.com/wangwach/200802/Jaluo_Press020408.html 

http://jaluo.com/wangwach/200802/Jonathan020408.html

http://jaluo.com/wangwach/200802/Babu020408.html

http://jaluo.com/wangwach/200802/David020408.html

http://jaluo.com/wangwach/200802/Diana020408.html

http://jaluo.com/wangwach/200802/Feingold_Sununu020408.html

 http://jaluo.com/wangwach/200802/Adam_Lusekelo020408.html

http://jaluo.com/wangwach/200802/NATION_Team020408.html

http://jaluo.com/wangwach/200802/UN_IRIN020608.html

 Regards,

Jaluo Press

P.S.  NOTE: Since the stories above on the Luo refugees were published, Tanzanian Minister for Home Affairs Joseph Mungai lost his post in the wake of a corruption scandal that also saw the exit of the former Tanzanian Prime Minister and his cabinet.  We expect better from the new government of Tanzania.