Diplomats from the United Nations Security Council’s 15-member countries are in the country to hold talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta over the move to shut down the Dadaab refugee camp.
The Security Council Report, an online news center covering the UN’s powerful organ, says the diplomats will meet Uhuru at State House. The date of the meeting is yet to be communicated, but it is likely to be Monday. Uhuru is visiting the northeastern counties of Mandera, Wajir and Garissa until Saturday.
UN secretary general Ban ki-Moon is also expected in the country next Thursday for the the second session of the United Nations Environment Assembly, which will open in Nairobi on Monday.
Sources told the Star Ban will discuss the refugee situation on the sidelines of the session, where 100 ministers and more than 1,700 participants from more than 155 counties are expected to attend.
President of the General Assembly John Ashe will also attend. United States and European Union ambassadors are expected to leave for Dadaab on Tuesday for a fact-finding mission. The UNSC delegation were in Somali’s capital, Mogadishu, yesterday. Also on the agenda is the extension of the Amisom mandate. Kenya has more than 4,000 soldiers under the peacekeeping mission.
The delegates’ visit to Somalia will focus on al Shabaab’s upsurge in attacks. The council expressed concerns over “the protracted process to approve the 2016 electoral model”.
The government is under intense pressure to abandon plans to close the camps. But Kenya maintains the complex will be closed and all refugees sent home by May next year.