ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact of refugees on host state-security by investigating their involvement in internal conflicts in Kenya and Tanzania, either as participants, or as causes of those conflicts. It examines the various forms this involvement entailed, including violent confrontations between refugees which result from ethnic and political factors. Refugee involvement in violent conflict in Kenya and Tanzania has taken four main forms: ethno-national conflicts among refugees. Violent conflict among refugees of the same nationality in Kenya occurred among Sudanese and Somali refugees. The competing desires of political factions and rebel/militia groups, and the hosting of refugees from different nationalities in the same camps. Domestic and gender-based violence is another common form of violence in both Kenya and Tanzania. Conflict also occurs between refugees and local hosts for a range of complex reasons, such as competition for scarce natural resources and economic opportunities, environmental destruction caused by refugees and cultural differences.
