‘Occupied Enclave’: Policing and the underbelly of humanitarian governance in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya

Brankamp, Hanno

doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2019.02.008

Cited by 32 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…This information is critical in mitigating conflict both with the host community and within the refugee community. Previous research has reported violence accompanying militarized policing within Kakuma Refugee Camp, including physical force and bribery, similar to the findings in this paper [22]. Another study in Kakuma Refugee Camp that focused specifically on women revealed difficulties in reporting incidents, especially in reporting SGBV, due to the tedious and lengthy process [7].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Exploring sources of insecurity for Ethiopian Oromo and Somali women who have given birth in Kakuma Refugee Camp: A Qualitative Study

et al. 2020

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Background According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 44,000 people are forced to flee their homes every day due to conflict or persecution. Although refugee camps are designed to provide a safe temporary location for displaced persons, increasing evidence demonstrates that the camps themselves have become stressful and dangerous long-term places-especially for women. However, there is limited literature focused on refugee women's perspectives on their insecurity. This qualitative study sought to better understand the ways in which women experienced insecurity at a refugee camp in Kenya. Methods and findings Between May 2017 and June 2017, ethnographic semi-structured interviews accompanied by observation were conducted with a snowball sampling of 20 Somali (n = 10) and Ethiopian Oromo (n = 10) women, 18 years and older, who had had at least 1 pregnancy while living in Kakuma Refugee Camp. The interviews were orally translated, transcribed, entered into Dedoose software for coding, and analyzed utilizing an ethnographic approach. Four sources of insecurity became evident: tension between refugees and the host community, intra-or intercultural conflicts, direct abuse and/or neglect by camp staff and security personnel, and unsafe situations in accessing healthcare-both in traveling to healthcare facilities and in the facilities themselves. Potential limitations include nonrandom sampling, the focus on a specific population, the inability to record interviews, and possible subtle errors in translation. Conclusions In this study, we observed that women felt insecure in almost every area of the camp, with there being no place in the camp where the women felt safe. As it is well documented that insecure and stressful settings may have deleterious effects on health, understanding the sources PLOS MEDICINE

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Exploring sources of insecurity for Ethiopian Oromo and Somali women who have given birth in Kakuma Refugee Camp: A Qualitative Study

et al. 2020

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“…As discussed, Nairobi is seen as the ‘centre of reform’: it is the place where reform ideas are devised; it is the ‘hub of change and transformation’, and implementing reform is about spreading the message outwards – bordering out. This supports much of the work on policing outside of Nairobi (see Brankamp, 2019; Mkutu et al., 2014; Mkutu and Wandera, 2013), particularly in Northern Kenya, where policing is largely militarised and executed as a form of ‘emergency policing’ (Brankamp, 2019: 70). Areas outsides of the capital are often characterised as ‘operational areas’ (Brankamp, 2019: 68).…”

Section: ‘Reform Means Curing’: Moral Bordering In the Policesupporting

confidence: 55%

“…This supports much of the work on policing outside of Nairobi (see Brankamp, 2019; Mkutu et al., 2014; Mkutu and Wandera, 2013), particularly in Northern Kenya, where policing is largely militarised and executed as a form of ‘emergency policing’ (Brankamp, 2019: 70). Areas outsides of the capital are often characterised as ‘operational areas’ (Brankamp, 2019: 68).…”

Section: ‘Reform Means Curing’: Moral Bordering In the Policesupporting

confidence: 55%

The ‘pure apples’: Moral bordering within the Kenyan police

Diphoorn

2020

Environ Plan D

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This article analyses various police reform initiatives in Kenya as a form of ‘moral bordering’. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Nairobi between 2017 and 2018, I analyse how police officers differentiate themselves from other police officers along (moral) ideas of reform and how this occurs in two divergent, yet interconnected, directions. The first is a process of bordering in: moral bordering occurs internally within the police and reform efforts aim to break down borders among police officers. The second is a process of bordering out: reform initiatives are designed in the urban centre and are aimed at spatially pushing the border externally, away from Nairobi. My approach to reform as moral bordering shows how borders can simultaneously take on disparate dimensions: with bordering in, borders are primarily social and symbolic, and with bordering out, borders take on a more spatial nature. This duality encapsulates the inherent friction that results from reform initiatives simultaneously moving in distinctive directions and differs from much of the (anthropological) work on the state police that analyses how the police themselves either enact borders or act as borders.

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“…Material structures and architecture contribute to slowing down migration, in part by immobilizing refugees in camps (Davies et al, 2017): ‘ [c]aging keeps refugees in their countries of origin or camps in other countries’ (Fitzgerald, 2019: 6 emphasis in original). Similarly, Brankamp (2019: 68) observes that Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya ‘impedes the mobilities of refugees through fortified architectures’. Yet others focus on the ways that migration infrastructure facilitates rather than hinders migrant journeys.…”

Section: En Route: Transit and Journeysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographies of migration III: Transit and transnationalism

Ehrkamp

2019

Progress in Human Geography

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This third and final report on geographies of migration highlights the complexities of international migration through the two related processes of transit and transnationalism. Examining spaces of transit and transnationalism complicates notions that migration is a straightforward movement. The report first turns to transit migration in order to examine the multiple processes, spaces, and experiences in-between the beginning and endpoints of migrant journeys. It then shows how migrants and states create transnational spaces beyond national borders. I conclude that future research might focus on the connections between transit and transnationalism to more fully understand how mobility and immobility are intertwined.

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‘Occupied Enclave’: Policing and the underbelly of humanitarian governance in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya

Cited by 32 publications

References 50 publications

Exploring sources of insecurity for Ethiopian Oromo and Somali women who have given birth in Kakuma Refugee Camp: A Qualitative Study

Exploring sources of insecurity for Ethiopian Oromo and Somali women who have given birth in Kakuma Refugee Camp: A Qualitative Study

The ‘pure apples’: Moral bordering within the Kenyan police

Geographies of migration III: Transit and transnationalism

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