Refugee Spaces and Urban Citizenship in Nairobi: Africa's Sanctuary City by Derese G. Kassa (review)

For the past half century, throngs of refugees from conflict-ridden and economically challenged countries have made Northeast Africa one of the most significant refugee-hosting regions in the world.¹ South Sudan's convulsive civil war, the absence of a permanent central government in Somalia, and sustained political repression in Eritrea and Ethiopia continue to contribute to the constant flow of refugees to Kenya, a country with a relatively tranquil political system. These refugees, particularly Ethiopians, have made Nairobi their home. In contrast, others use it as a stepping-stone to a much greener pasture of the West, the Gulf States, and the Republic of South Africa. Nevertheless, few studies have looked into the living conditions and political status of Ethiopian refugees in Kenya.

Thus Refugee Spaces and Urban Citizenship in Nairobi: Africa's Sanctuary City, is a welcome addition to the literature on refugees. The book highlights the experiences of urban refugees by focusing on Ethiopians in Nairobi, Kenya. The monograph has five chapters, including the introduction, in which Kassa discusses urban refugees and the issue of "equal political rights for any or every dweller" (8). He specifically chooses to focus on "how refugees negotiate aspects of urban citizenship in the host city. It explores how urban refugees employ their knowledge, resources, and networks to appropriate and manage urban space" (15, italics in the original).

In chapter 2, Kassa details how Nairobi emerged as a sanctuary city for refugees trekking across Northeast Africa and discusses his methods of data collection. He interviewed over thirty refugees, government officials, and non-governmental organizations to gain an understanding of urban refugees' everyday lives and the challenges they face against the backdrop of a Kenyan government that is dealing with its own internal problems. He also describes the birth of one of the world's largest refugee camp complexes—Dadaab and Kakuma—and its deplorable living conditions. Kassa effectively conveys the sense of insecurity, inadequate humanitarian assistance, and frustrated hopes that characterize these camps. The refugees' ambitions for a better life compelled them to take refuge in Nairobi and fuel their desires to transition to other countries with relatively better prospects, while the Kenyan government wants refugees to remain in camps. Kassa finds that, due to the refugees' will to resist, and no doubt the Kenyan government's laxity, they were able to create what he calls "refugee spaces," "where refugees dwell, play, and work" (79).

Chapter 3 describes everyday life in these refugee spaces. While some of the refugees were waiting for a chance to move to South Africa or the West, as had several generations of refugees before them, many others were making Nairobi their home. Ethiopian refugees were able to start businesses, build community centers, and make themselves an integral part of the local economy. Challenges abound, however. Several Ethiopian entrepreneurs were operating businesses without permission or licensure (39). In addition, local peoples' resentments against outsiders, always present to some degree, peaks during occasional terrorist attacks in Nairobi and makes refugees' lives extremely precarious (46).

In the context of the uninterrupted flow of refugees into Nairobi from across the continent, their undeniable social and cultural contributions, and their ambiguous reception by locals, Kassa wrestles with the questions of the refugees' rights and privileges versus those possessed by citizens. In Chapter 4 he wades into the unresolved international and regional treaties and ever evolving Kenyan national laws. Despite some success in extending legal protection for refugees in Kenya, for the most part the rights of refugees are dependent on the goodwill of the host country, even for those who remain in refugee camps (70). Kassa closely examines the incidence of gut-wrenching refugee abuse at the hands of rogue police. He laments that "the Kenyan state shows little or no enthusiasm to address the condition of urban refugees" (71).

What looms large in Chapter 5, and throughout this book, is...