This website is safe to use and interact with. It is privately administered from the UK, while the content is our own, speaking to you from The United Nations Refugee Camp in Kakuma, Kenya. (UNHCR)
We are reluctantly asking for your help.
We fled from our home countries in fear for our lives, seeking sanctuary from the United Nations. We are a group of 9 gay men and 5 Lesbians, 4 of whom are the respective mothers to 7 children.
Please read how being trapped in this horrible camp is impacting our health and well-being.
Dry hot wet or windy, Kakuma, in Turkana County, sits slightly north of the Equator. On a map, it’s northwest Kenya, roughly 50 kilometres from the border of Uganda and 70 kilometres from the border with South Sudan.
Heat and Temperature
Turkana is (generally) a dry hot wet or windy place. Dry and hot is the usual and we swelter under the heat all year round. It can drop into the 20s at night, but it’s still above 30 degrees Celsius during the day.
Our shelters provide shade from the fierce sun overhead. But many are made from metal sheeting and have a low ceiling, creating an oven-like environment.
Rainfall and Flooding
The Aberdare range of mountains sits mainly to the south of us, sometimes sending rainfall surging towards this area and causing flooding and misery in camp. Everything we have gets soaked when that happens, and finding a dry spot to sleep is a losing game.
Rainfall here is generally low. However, it can be unpredictable, and with Lake Turkana to the east and the great rift valley stretching from Samburu National Park right up to the Ethiopian border, more flooding can occur in camp, especially between March and May.
Rain or flood, the dry, hard sand underfoot becomes a thick grey mud sludge. In camp, almost everything stops because no one can get about. It can last weeks, causing absolute misery while collecting rations and water.
Mud gets everywhere. Scorpions, snakes, and other nasty creatures can appear where they usually don’t, and even after the water subsides, mosquitos breed like no tomorrow in the remaining stagnant water pools.
Wind and Sandstorms
Protus mending the women’s roof after a storm
When there is some, the wind is generally just a light breeze, hardly enough to cool the sweltering humidity. Most of the wind comes from the southeast. Unpredictable wind gusts can become strong enough to damage or collapse our rickety shelter structures, which we must fix ourselves.
The wind can also create sudden sand storms from the surrounding bush. Sand then finds its way into every nook and cranny instead of mud and water! Read: Our shelters and living conditions
How weather impacts our health
Newcomers are especially vulnerable to sun sores, mouth eruptions like ulcers, cracked skin, heat rashes and headaches. The children and the extra vulnerable have to be protected, a responsibility we try to share in cooperation with their respective mothers or carers if that’s appropriate.
The heat can also cause dehydration when we don’t have sufficient water. Our water source is close by, but other refugees often refuse us, making us walk much further to collect water, with apparent risks from harsh weather and the behaviour of others.
At night, when humidity stops us from sleeping, some sleep outside. That can be risky because of venomous creatures or other camp residents taking advantage and doing harm.
Flooding brings contagions and increases the chance of typhoid and malaria. Mosquitos lay eggs in remaining puddles.
We generally cope because we don’t have a choice.
