 The Somali refugee crisis is now a continental problem causing ethnic tension even in the far-flung South Africa, hence presenting states with a tricky choice between hosting refugees and protecting their national interests.
The explosion that killed a man and injured 39 people in Nairobi on June 11 has put back refugees into sharp focus security-wise.
So far, The Kenya Police has interrogated nine suspects most of them Muslims of Somali origin. The most sought suspect, whose photograph was published on the media, Farah Ahmed Hirsi, handed himself to the police. Farah, a Kenyan citizen born in Mandera District in Northern Kenya, is a businessman in Eastleigh, Nairobi, which houses thousands of Somali refugees. He has a Masters Degree in Islamic Studies.
In August 2006 Farah was arrested and questioned about his alleged links to terrorism-and was threatened with deportation to Somalia for allegedly being in Kenya illegally.
This adds to the perception, in certain quarters, of ethnic Somalis in Kenya as a state security risk since the Shifta (bandit) war in the 1960s. This has also presented intractable difficulties to the protection of the increasingly criminalised Somali asylum-seekers and refugees.
Somalia has been ravaged by decades of civil war after the fall of the Siad Barre regime in 1991 sparking off one of Africa's most protracted refugee crises. In the same vein, Somalia-based al-Jihaad fighters alleged to have links with al-Qaeda have the potential to change the security dynamics in the Greater Horn of Africa.
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