Lodwar, Turkana – 27th September 2024 (Public Communications and Media Relations)

The Turkana County Government, through its Department of Lands and Physical Planning, has engaged World Relief officials in discussions to address the challenges facing both host and refugee communities in Turkana.

During the meeting, the County Chief Officer for Lands and Physical Planning, Robert Loyelei, emphasized the need for strengthening integration programs that can help alleviate the growing pressure on resources especially for Kakuma, bearing its recent elevation to Municipality status.

The chief Officer acknowledged that Kakuma was witnessing an upsurge of its population arising from persons migrating to the town in search of opportunities and new refugees’ arrivals further straining services and infrastructure.

“We welcome moves by development partners focusing on displacement impacts to help us address the situation. To this extent, we are open to work with World Relief in designing interventions that will positively impact on the lives of the host and refugee communities,” Loyelei said.

On his part, Country Coordinator of World Relief, Otsimi added that coordinated efforts would assist the populations vulnerable to such displacement impacts.

“Our engagement with the County is actually a strategic move to design and implement an intervention that will have a long-term impact for the benefit of both the refugee and host communities,” Otsimi said.

Municipality managers Peter Emuria (Kakuma) and Benjamin Tukei (Lodwar) also participated in the meeting, outlining areas of potential collaboration between the County’s municipalities and World Relief. They noted that joint initiatives could help ease the burden on local infrastructure while ensuring equitable support for both communities.

Also in attendance were Joseph Egiron, Director of Survey, and Davies Munialo, Director of Physical Planning.

The meeting also deliberated on land use patterns, installation and maintenance of Municipality infrastructure.