Institute of Social Transformation

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Browsing Institute of Social Transformation by Subject "Great Lakes Refugees"

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    Challenges Facing Urban Refugees in Running Small Scale Businesses: A Case of Great Lakes Refugees in Nairobi County
    (Tangaza University College, 2017) Maina, Charles Githua
    The main objective of this research was to study the challenges facing the urban Great Lakes Refugees doing small scale businesses in Nairobi County - Kenya. The study examined whether the great lakes refugees had legal documents, whether they were able to access finance for small scale businesses, whether they faced security issues while trading in Nairobi County and whether they had capacity to access the market for their products. The study attempted to explain how the urban great lakes refugees acquired and faced the challenges in search of livelihood. A situational analysis was carried out as the background for the formulation of the research problem and a systematic review of literature was conducted to establish the theoretical and conceptual framework. The study methodology used was a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research design. Population of urban great lakes refugees was 468 and those doing small scale businesses were 197. Purposive sampling was used to select 60 respondents to fill the questionnaires, where later four Focused Groups Discussions (FDGs) comprising ten members each were carried out for the verification and complementarity of the questionnaires responses. The data analysis was done using descriptive statistics while inferential statistics were used to draw conclusions from the collected data and presented using pie charts, bar graphs, frequency tables and percentages. This was done through Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) and Ms Excel. The found that very view urban great lakes refugees had proper legal documents to allow them live and work in Nairobi County, thus living majority of them hidden “illegally” in the public fabric. They involved themselves with all manner of small scale businesses for livelihood. These businesses had no legal permits since they were not registered with the relevant County authorities. They also faced great challenges in accessing finances/loans for start-ups or for growth of their businesses. Majority had received small amount of cash from TUSA only once, which was insufficient and had no capacity to acquire more due to repayment challenges or lack of collateral for the same. They had no capacity to acquire finance from government institutions. On the other hand, those who were venturing into businesses had high challenges on book keeping skills for they lacked financial and management skills. Great lakes refugees living in Nairobi (City) County, faced numerous security issues. These included arrests by police officers, harassment, intimidation, threats, sexual abuse, assaults, thefts and tribal conflicts. They were arrested, harassed and beaten by security agents and money was demanded from them. They faced the similar security challenges from the local citizens. These challenges were attributed to lack or delays in issuing refugee status legal documentations. Closure of Department of Refugee Affairs and fear of deportations blocked majority of refugees from seeking registration or renewal of their documents. The great lakes refugees in small scale businesses faced a challenge to accessing the market and depending with the kinds of products they traded, they took between one to thirty days in selling away their products. Refugees in the urban centres in Nairobi County faced societal challenges too. These included language barriers, lack of formal education, ethnic differences from fellow refugees. They lacked sufficient knowledge or awareness of refugee Acts or policies that facilitated their rights as human persons and therefore the society took advantage of this over them. The study also attempted to analyse the relationship faith and experiences in order to understand how faith, wisdom, experience, traditions and general knowledge kept the refugees moving on with life. The study ended by proposing participatory action – oriented plan and strategies based on short and long term plans. These included meetings, seminars/training workshops, language training, small group’s kitty, creating networks/alliances/collaboration/partnership, lobbying and advocacy, visibility campaigns, co-operative formations, budgeting/fundraising, on- going research, monitoring and evaluation and finally integration programme. All these are aimed to achieve Social Transformation for urban refugees in Nairobi County.