According to John Burugu, Commissioner at the Department for Refugee Services, one of the major obstacles stopping refugees from starting enterprises, creating new lives, and contributing to Kenya's society is a need for national identification credentials.

Speaking on Citizen TV's Daybreak Show on Friday, Burugu said that although Kenya issued refugee IDs to the displaced people upon their arrival, the State does not recognize the credentials if the asylum seekers desire to open up legitimate companies around the nation.

"The issue with ID documents is the main difficulty. There are several types of identification that you must possess to operate a business in Kenya.

Yes, we give them IDs, but the refugee ID is not accepted for commercial activities, according to Burugu.


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Burugu remarked that the government must implement laws that will make it simpler for refugees to establish enterprises and use local government services, even if he acknowledged that the contributions of refugees could be advantageous for host nations like Kenya.

He stated, "As a government, we are expected to make a policy change and recognize the refugee ID as a document that supports the opening of firms and business activities.

Although we don't encourage them to start businesses, we want them to pay taxes.

Burugu noted that the government might also make it easier for refugees to receive government services by creating a digital service portal similar to E-Citizen that they can easily access anywhere in the nation.

The government offers over 5,000 services through e-citizen. The official claimed they would be on an equal footing with Kenyans if we developed a platform that accepts refugee IDs and provides services to them.