August 9, 2011

DADAAB, Kenya/GENEVA – A husband and wife argue over food and money, friends and relatives intervene and the dispute escalates into violence. Two men struggle while others try to pull them apart and the authorities are called. This is a serious business.

Except that some of the participants can't help smiling as the action unfolds. For it is actually part of a role-play training exercise for the extraordinary volunteers of the Community Peace and Security Teams (CPSTs), who are on the front line of law and order in the Dadaab refugee camps.

The system, devised and delivered by The Lutheran World Federation (LWF), will now be extended to new teams picked from among the 100,000 refugees from Somalia who have come to the camps this year. After their month-long training, which begins this week, they will make up new CPSTs in the camp extensions that are opening in emergency response to the influx.

Their job will be to keep the new sites safe for the traumatized refugee families escaping drought and insecurity at home.

The first experiment with CPSTs began in 2006. But it was only after LWF took over the management of the three camps [Dagahaley, Ifo and Hagadera] at Dadaab a year later that the system was extended to cover every corner of the complex.

In charge throughout has been Samwel Cheruiyot, an ebullient former Kenyan policeman who is LWF's senior safety and security officer.

"When the question of structuring the camps came up, I stressed the importance of community policing," says Cheruiyot, 36. "It's working very well, and all the other agencies here now factor these teams into their work. Anything related to the community, they will serve it well."

Filling a Big Gap

He has only two national staff in his headquarters office, but five Somali refugee supervisors in each of the three camps who act as his "eyes and ears." In total there are currently 269 CPST members, and that figure is due to rise to 350 when the new training round is complete.

The numbers contrast sharply with those for the regular police in the area. There is currently one police officer serving 15,000 people in Dadaab. This compares with a national average of one for 650 members of the population and an international standard of one for 450, says Cheruiyot.

"There is a big, big gap and the CPSTs are filling that gap," he says. "I believe that they do a great job."

Just what they can do was illustrated one evening when Cheruiyot was relaxing after another demanding day. Suddenly he is very engaged on his mobile phone, in a series of animated conversations which lead him to repeatedly walk away into the darkness. When it's all over he explains that a lorry had just been held up by bandits near one of the camps, but the quick response by the local CPST leader had meant the police were able to respond equally quickly and arrest the gunmen.

The day to day reality is usually more prosaic, as explained by the CPST leadership group from Dagahaley camp when they gathered to give their training demonstration.

Disputes and Tension

One section leader described a boundary dispute, when a neighbor had moved his fence to encroach on another's plot. This led to a quick escalation, where family members of each side from outside the area started to appear armed with pangas (machetes) and sticks, apparently spoiling for a fight. The CPST was sent for, and the situation was eventually diffused by negotiation.

Another told of a recent dispute at a tap stand, the source of all water in the camps, when two boys had got into an argument over queue-jumping. Their mothers then started to fight, grabbing each other's hair, scratching each other's faces and beating each other with jerry cans, until again relatives got involved. The CPST member for that block called for back-up, then together with the section leader they calmed the situation and called for family elders and religious leaders to make sure it didn't happen again.

Initially it all sounds fairly low-key. But in the densely-populated camps, tensions are never far away and things can quite quickly turn nasty. One recent incident, another water dispute between different parts of the community, resulted in six people being hospitalized with panga cuts. It was all over within 15 minutes.

"We deal with cases of domestic violence, quarrelling, people causing a disturbance and cases involving the youth," says Abdi Moalim Mohammed, the vice chairperson at Dagahaley. "All criminal cases – such as rape, robbery, violence against children or murder – are referred to the police."

Indeed referral to the police is the main sanction the CPSTs have in every case. Most people prefer to have their disputes sorted out by local elders and religious leaders. Again, it is the only way that the low level of police numbers in the area can work.

Additional Pressure

But the recent influx of refugees is putting additional pressure on the system, with many of the new arrivals being hosted by relatives in the established camps.

"Land grabs have increased, with the new people settling on areas that are supposed to be for refugee facilities. Encroachment disputes have increased. Assault cases have increased," says Amina Hassan Ahmed, one of the female block leaders in the group.

Hence the need for new recruits, and quickly. There seems to be no shortage of volunteers, however, and one afternoon Cheruiyot addresses the first 21 recruited at the Ifo extension site and introduces them to the existing CPST members who will carry out most of the training. "You need to be alert, get to know each other. These old CPSTs they know a lot. Ask these people what to do. They will tell you," says Cheruiyot.

Among the recruits is Ibrahim Hussein Noor, who has been at Dadaab for four months. His story is the familiar one of trying to escape from drought and conflict with his family. His reason for wanting to join the CPSTs is similar to that of other recruits spoken to.

"Here there are still shortages of food and water, but one thing is much better – there is peace," he says. "Nothing is possible without peace. I love peace. And I want to help keep peace in the community."

Lutheran World Information
By LWI correspondent John Davison, LWF/DWS Kenya-Djibouti.