| dc.description.abstract | The contemporary global community is facing challenges such as the fight against terrorism, diminishing and scarce resources, degradation of the environment, the struggle to embrace a conventional unitary form of democratic governance and the failure by the global powers to manage the effects brought about by the end of the cold war. The undermentioned challenges coupled with globalizing agents within a cross-cultural community in pursuit of scientific solutions have all created a . dynamism that threatens to be worse that the two world wars and the ensuing cold war tensions.
The ensuing conflicts have invariably seen Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees in areas that have been described as conflict spots. These are, the Middle East, Parts of Eastern Europe, Cambodia, Central Africa Republics, South East Asia, Vietnam, West Africa and Horn of Africa region. The international community through the UNHCR engages in efforts aimed at maintaining observance of human rights and the protection of the displaced persons through statutes of 1951 (UN Convention 1951, Article
33:176) and the 1967 African Banjul Charter of 1967. These instruments give the refugees the right to choose whether to return or not, irrespective of the Social-Economic, Political or Security concerns of their countries of origin.
The Kenyan Government has acceded to international statutes and charters that emphasize the protection of refugees and therefore the recently promulgated refugee bill will see the status of the refugee community improved. Much as this maybe seen as a milestone in refugee protection, failure to address their mental health situation owing to the traumatic experiences they encountered is observed by this study as an issue that is wanting. The refugees are a trsumatized community and therefore any'efforts to countermand the growing populations of refugees in camps can enhance rehabilitation programs of displaced persons who in turn can participate in development. Trauma transference has been speculated by this study as one such unexplored program that can restore hope among the refugee community for this can ease fears in them thereby enabling them to consider returning to their countries of origin.
The Aim of this study therefore was to examine the magnitude of trauma among the Sudanese Refugees in Kakuma camp in Kenya. Pegged to this was the need to establish whether there exist significant differences in Sudanese Refugees' gender attitude towards voluntary repatriation.
This study was anchored on two theories; Motivated Reasoning theory by Lodge and Tober 2000 and the Affective Intelligence Theory by Marcus, Mac Kuen and Neumann, 2000. According to Motivated Reasoning Theory, long-term memory is the permanent storage mechanism of the mind while working memory is that portion of memory that is currently being attended to by being activated in the mind. In other words, the old information is reconfigured and structured to emerge as new information that re enacts traumatic events in a version that is new and fresh on the refugees' minds. According to DSM-IV
2000, this is Trauma Re-enactment, which represents the second criterion of trauma.
According to the Affective Intelligence Theory by Marcus, Mac Kuen and Neumann, 2000, the presence of anxiety increases the attention paid to a stimulus thereby increasing the amount of time required to process the stimulus. According to this theory, when a threat is perceived in the environment, the behavioral inhibition system interrupts the routine processing and focuses the attention to the threat. Since the routine processing is interrupted, it takes longer to process the incoming information relating making decisions to return.
Both Probability and Non-probability sampling techniques were employed to select units of observation that eventually formed the sample for study of 108 respondents. Interview Method was used to provide Primary data using DSM IV (2000) Structured Questionnaires (Tool) that were administered to the sampled Refugees and Health Officials. Secondary Data was collected from UNHCR Kakuma Refugee
Camp Official Records, Jesuit Refugee ,Services (JRS) Official Records, and International Rescue
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Committee (IRC) Official Records from the field and Clinics. Other secondary data was collected from the Kakuma Police Records in,!_heOccurrence Books, the Turkana District Office Security Reports and Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Official Records regarding Education. Key Informant Interviews were conducted using interview guides whereby information was collected from Refugee Representatives, UNHCR Kakuma Refugee Camp Officials, Jesuit Refugee Services Officers,
International Rescue Committee Officers, Kakuma Police Officer Commanding Station (OCS), the
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Turkana District Officer (DO) and Lutheran World Federation Officers. The Researcher also conducted focus group discussions of refugee representatives from the Sudanese tribes; Dinka, Dinka Bor and the Nuer. The data was analysed using Descriptive statistics that described data using percentages and frequencies whereas Qualitative data was analysed and provided interpretations and created meaning out of respondents' statements and answers. The researcher made causal relationships by subjecting field findings to the existing bodies of knowledge on trauma reactions and migratory behaviour
The study established that 100% of those interviewed revealed symptoms of Trauma as indicated in t DSM-IV 2000 interview and that 23% of the total PTSD symptoms were discovered by means of the clinic interviews in the IRC Community Health Clinics. The study also established that 50% of the Sudane refugees experience cluster "B" symptoms. These leads to the conclusion that PSTD is a long last i) disorder among the Sudanese refugees-who have experienced it for many years without any form of therap An important aspect that this study revealed was that cases of PSTD tended to rise in subjects without pr disaster histories of the disorder, a finding that is also stated by Smith (1990:205-206). This observation w manifested in the young Sudanese born in the camp and never experienced traumatic experiences befor Those who had infantile experiences of trauma were observed to be more prepared to overcome fears aJ experiences that could easily elicit the development of trauma.
The study established that there is no significant difference between men and women regarding their attitude towards voluntary. Other Factors that influence Attitude towards Voluntary Repatriation were Education, Health facilities, Food and water, Job opportunities, Security and War in Darfur, Landmines in return routes, Poor infrastructure (Roads/ Social Amenities), Forced marriage, Forced Islamization while others indicated that they had no one to receive them.
Failures to implement the CPA and Garang's death were found to be contributing towards a negative attitude towards repatriation. Thus, this, study highly recommends the speedy implementation of this
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agreement to avert a crisis- the international community, AU and IGAD should monitor the observance
of this agreement by both parties. UHCR should re-loo]; into the issue of relying on durable solutions as the only available ways of solving the refugee problem. There is need to improve mental health therapeutic interventions trauma not withstanding so that the refugees can make decisions from an informed position regarding repatriation.
Extensive research should be done to establish the extent to which refugees can be used as agents of global peace. Similarly, a study needs to be conducted to establish how rape as a specific form of violence against women has affected the lives of the Sudanese Women Returnees and the best way of assisting such victims to cope with trauma. | en |
