In March 2025, Kenya took a bold step toward transforming the future of refugees and host communities by launching the Shirika Plan—a groundbreaking initiative aimed at fostering the socioeconomic inclusion of refugees and shifting from a model of aid dependency to one rooted in long-term development. The Shirika Plan for Refugees and Host Communities marks a significant policy shift, placing integration, opportunity, and shared prosperity at the heart of refugee management.
Despite its promising vision, the Shirika Plan has faced criticism from refugees, host communities, and civil society organizations. Key concerns include the lack of meaningful consultation with refugees and community leaders, unclear implementation guidelines, limited administrative capacity, and fears of increased pressure on already strained and underfunded services. Questions around transparency, inclusivity, and long-term sustainability continue to cast doubt on the plan’s ability to deliver on its ambitious goals.
Inside Kenya’s Refugee Camps
Kenya has long been a host country for refugees in the East Africa region, sheltering refugees for over three decades. Its two main refugee camps—Dadaab and Kakuma—rank among the largest in the world. As of March 31, 2025, Dadaab was home to 428,016 refugees, while Kakuma and Kalobeyei Settlement hosted 303,247. In addition, 111,902 refugees resided in urban areas, bringing the national refugee population to an estimated 843,165. Strikingly, over half of these individuals were children, underscoring the urgency of sustainable, child-focused solutions.
Most refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya come from Somalia (56.9 percent), South Sudan (23.4 percent), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (7.6 percent). They have fled violence, political instability, hunger, and climate shocks.
In March 2025, following a visit to Kakuma Refugee Camp, USCRI Kenya Country Director, Firdaus Bashee, wrote, “…nothing could have readied me for the dark reality I encountered during my visit to Kakuma earlier this year. What I witnessed was not just hardship; it was a haunting reminder of the world’s failure to protect refugees.”
In the camps, refugees live in overcrowded shelters, many made of tarps and tin. For many children, Kakuma and Dadaab are the only worlds they have known. They attend overcrowded and under-resourced schools if they have access to education at all. Families line up for food rations that are often not enough, with cuts to humanitarian aid fueling starvation. Healthcare is scarce, as are protection and psychosocial services. Job opportunities are almost nonexistent, and hope stretches thin.
Yet amidst such hardship, refugees are the architects of solutions. In Nairobi and across Kenya’s camps, refugee-led organizations (RLOs) are filling critical gaps. As implementation of the Shirika Plan begins and sets out to address the needs of refugees and host communities, refugee voices must be included and at the center of dialogue and action.
Click here to read the full brief.
USCRI, founded in 1911, is a non-governmental, not-for-profit international organization committed to working on behalf of refugees and immigrants and their transition to a dignified life.
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