“The government of the Republic of Kenya, having taken into consideration its national security interests, has decided that hosting of refugees has to come to an end,” senior official at Interior Ministry, Karanja Kibicho said.

The move which implies the closing of the Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps, concerns mainly Somali refugees. Nairobi wishes to repatriate them as soon as possible.

Kenyan authorities affirmed that the Somali refugee camps have been infiltrated by al-Shabaab militants.

To date, there are 550,000 refugees from Somalia, South Sudan, Burundi and Congo living in Kenya. Dabaab camp is the biggest in the world. “Somali are the one who pose a problem. So we start with them,” said Karanga Kibicho.