Speech #1030029757

Freedom of Movement Within the Country. Foreign Travel. Emigration. and Repatriation.Kenyan law gives all Kenyans the right to travel freely. to settle. and to conduct business. which includes obtaining land titles. in any area of the country. Kenya does not generally prohibit emigration of its citizens but has in the past prevented travel abroad. usually by critics of the Government. In 1992 the Government relaxed its restrictive travel policies. even allowing vocal government critic Wangari Maathai to travel to the Rio de Janeiro environmental conference in May. while out on bail on charges of rumormongering (see Section 2.a.). It is highly unlikely she would have been allowed to travel before the political reforms of late The Government does not regard issuance of passports to its citizens as a right and reserves the authority to issue or deny passports at its discretion. The Government restored the citizenship of Kenyan citizen Salim Lone by formally publishing notice in the Kenya Gazette. It had revoked his citizenship in 1986 on grounds of "disloyal speech." In 1991 Kenya was inundated by a flood of Somali. Ethiopian. and Sudanese refugees. fleeing chaos and conflict in their home countries. Kenya has accepted most asylum seekers. though sometimes entry is delayed. resulting in hardship and denial of assistance. None of these refugees has been granted legal status. other than that of asylum seeker. In 1990 there were only 14.000 refugees. at the end of 1992 there were about 400.000 refugees residing in camps. and the Government estimated that 100.000 refugees were living outside the camps in cities and rural areas. (The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees put the latter figure at about 20.000.) Somalis account for about 75 percent of the total. Refugees outside of the camps are extremely vulnerable to arrest. The Government organized a roundup of about 2.000 people in August. Refugees who purchase fake identification documents and visas put themselves even further at risk. There is increasing violence in the northeast. where most of the camps are situated. and there were crossborder incursions by armed Somalis. Section 3.