Deputy President William Ruto is in Turkey where he will defend the government’s move to close Dadaab Refugees Camp in Garissa.
Ruto led a team of delegates to Turkey on Saturday who are to attend the World Humanitarian Summit for two days starting Monday.
Kenya reached the move to close the refugee camp weeks ago after concerns over support from the international community, especially the European Union, who reduced support for the Somalia mission.
President Kenyatta has expressed frustrations by the Kenyan government of having to incur terrible consequences of trying to stabilise the neighbouring Somalia, including at least 130 terror attacks that have left more than 470 people dead, and hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees who are a threat to the national security.
Ruto, together with CS Interior, Joseph Ole Nkaissery and PS, Kibicho Karanja as well as Foreign affairs PS, Monica Juma among many others are expected to explain the government’s plans of repatriating more than 600,000 refugees in Turkey.
Last month, President Kenyatta explained the move to France President, Francois Hollande, and Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel. Kenyatta said that the Somali mission is a global rather than regional war.
“As I have continued to say this is a global, not a regional, war, not a national war, it’s a global war. And we must be able to combine our resources and increase our resources to be able to combat this particular problem, be it on the Horn of Africa, be it in West Africa, be it in the Maghreb, be it in Iraq, be it in Syria, because we must fight this war together,” Kenyatta said during the meetings with the presidents in their respective capitals.