Kenya: Ethiopian refugees worry over expulsion

A group is protesting their arrest in a government crackdown against suspected members of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) who have been blamed for the massacre in Turbi in Kenya's Marsabit district. More than 100 people were killed and hundreds left homeless. "It is quite questionable to accuse these people of being unlawfully in the country when the Kenya government is fully aware of their presence for the past three decades and the same government is the one that settled them in Badasa together with the UNHCR," a letter to the Immigration Minister written by the Marsabit Catholic diocese says. The refugees don’t deny their Ethiopian nationality, but say they have married Kenyans. Some have their children working with the government. Others are studying in Kenyan schools – both primary and secondary. Yet others are in local colleges and universities.