A woman with her one-month-old baby outside the refugee screening tent in Liboi.

Dry, drab and hot is how Daadab Refugee Camp in North Eastern Kenya can be described.

With temperatures soaring to more than 40 degrees centigrade, life is difficult for the refugees some of whom have escaped from war, famine and disease in their countries.

However, despite the harsh conditions, Daadab is a safe haven to more than 160,000 Somali refugees. Some of them have been here for 16 years. They came to the camp after the Government of Siad Barre was toppled.

Daadab was established in 1991 to accommodate Somali refugees who were fleeing clan fighting after the fall of Barre. Then, there were more than 400,000 Somali refugees. There are those who have been operating between the two countries until the Kenya Government closed the border recently.

More than 500km away from Nairobi and inaccessible by road when it rains, you need a four-wheel drive and police escort for the eight-hour trip to Daadab.

Here, you find three camps Ifo, Dagahalley, and Hagadera. As another war broke out in Somalia last year, there was an influx of refugees to the country.

"I have worked in many conflict zones but I think you should consider yourself unlucky to be born in Somalia," said a United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) official.

The official said the instability in Somalia is so high that at one point you can have about 1,000 refugees turning up unexpectedly at Liboi border post.

They are taken to Liboi Police Station for screening. Later they are taken to the UNHCR processing centre to await transfer to Daadab.

The Government screens the refugees by taking their fingerprints to be counterchecked with the data bank in Nairobi.

This is done to eliminate chances of Kenyan Somalis invading the camp to benefit from the food rations and relocation.

It takes two weeks to process and vet refugees at Liboi. Registration entitles the refugees to rations and space to put up temporary structures.

Daadab is like one big slum with all kinds of structures. Some go an extra mile and grow thorn fences around their portion.

Life in the refugee camps is harsh. The refugees have no legal status and cannot move beyond the camps without permission.

Refugees are not allowed to work, or do any income generating businesses.

They are stuck in the camps until they are repatriated or relocated. Those who die before they are moved are buried in the cemetery.

Some of the girls engage in prostitution and early marriages. It is not surprising to find a 21-year-old with three children.

Polygamy is common resulting to about 300 births every month. More than 4,000 tonnes of food is consumed at the camp every month.

UNHCR does not provide clothes. Children run around naked while adults cover themselves with tattered clothes.

The World Food Programme issues food rations to the refugees every 15 days. The rations are not enough and consist of maize and cooking oil. The maize is boiled and a little oil added to make a meal.

To buy other things such as sugar, tealeaves, rice and vegetables, the refugees sell part of their rations.

The business is lucrative. On days when rations are being issued, traders pitch tent outside the food distribution centre. They buy a kilo of maize from refugees for as little as Sh4. The maize is later loaded onto trucks and transported to Garissa or Kismayo, Somalia.

But Ms Josephine Muli, the national programme officer for World Food Programme, said the amount of food sold is negligible given the amount they issue.

Refugees who do not regard boiled maize as food sell about 2,000 tonnes of food distributed by WFP every two weeks.

Barter trade still exists in this part of the world. You can exchange maize for meat, fresh vegetables or camel milk.

The refugees live under inhuman conditions. Some families, with as many as six people, share a room with goats.

People form long queues as they wait their turns to draw water from the borehole.

The recent floods left pools in the camps that have been turned into laundry and bathing areas. Boys swim in dirty stagnant water.

Women have to walk long distances in search of firewood. These trips are not safe because of bandits lurking out there. Many women have been raped in the bushes.

Poorly constructed latrines pose a danger to the refugees. A walk through the refugee camp is a hop, step and jump affair as one dodges human waste scattered everywhere.

The women do all the work, while the men sit under the shades, chewing miraa and discussing politics.

Marriage depends on ones status. If you are able to pay dowry you get the woman you want but if you are unable to pay dowry you marry a relative.

The UNHCR deals with refugees in three ways — repatriation, integration or resettlement. Resettlement is expensive. Only 2,500 refugees are resettled every year.

Resettlement has now been suspended after the America Congress and the European Union slammed the door and tightened immigration rules on asylum seekers.

Britain tried to give Tanzania £4million aid in exchange of 3,500 failed asylum seekers in the UK but Tanzania refused. Kenyan laws do not allow integration of refugees.

Kheira Ahmed, 60, was the only one left after the Government deported Somali refugees at the Liboi border post recently.

When it was set up in 1991, Daadab camp was never intended to be permanent. It was meant to be a transit point, but the instability in Somalia has forced the UNHCR to consider expanding it. The camp is viewed as a liability.

Daadab has been described as an "arms centre". It is believed to be the main source of all the small arms in the wrong hands. Young men bored by the camps sneak into Somalia to fight alongside the warlords or bring guns into the country. Women who fetch firewood are used as carriers of arms. An AK-47 rifle is dismantled and put in a firewood bundle. Trucks coming to Nairobi later ferry the guns to Eastleigh, where thousands of Somalis have put up businesses.

In 2000, a UK-based magazine — African Affairs -— described security in Daadab as "probably worse than Kosovo". Then, as high as 142 rape cases were reported. The situation has improved. There is a police post in the camp and patrol vehicles. In 2002, former MPs Mohammed Shidiye (Lagdera) and Elias Barre (Fafi) demanded that the UNHCR leave and the Government to close the camp failure to which the residents would torch it. The outbursts were received with skeptism but some quarters in the current Government share the same sentiments.

Last year, the first polio case in 22 years was reported at the camp.

Harvesting of trees for firewood has nearly turned the area to a dessert.

The Government has ordered UNHCR to dismantle the Liboi processing centre, an indicator that they are not willing to take any more refugees. Liboi is the only legal entry to Kenya from Somalia in northern Kenya.

The Government wants UNHCR to shift to Somalia and deal with the refugees as Internally Displaced Persons (IDP). Two weeks ago, refugees were prevented from entering the country and some were forcefully deported.

President Kibaki met the National Security Council members and Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf on the crisis. After the meeting between the two presidents, Kibaki ordered all refugees in Liboi deported and the border closed.

Under the cover of darkness, military and police trucks left Garissa for Liboi with orders to deport all Somali refugees and close the border.

Even before Foreign Affairs minister, Mr Raphael Tuju, announced the closure, the army had moved in with a tank battalion and closed the border.

Screams and shrieks could be heard from the processing centre as the police forcefully bundled the refugees, mostly women and children, into trucks. Kheira Ahmed, 60, was left behind, as she was too sick to move.

Journalists on assignment in Liboi saw shoes, clothes and bags strewn all over the place. Among the deportees were a nine-month pregnant woman, a woman with a broken leg and children.

"Refugees leave nothing behind and it clearly shows they were forced to leave," said UNHCR Emergency Co-coordinator, Mr Geoffrey Wordley.

Peace in Somalia is still elusive since the Islamic Courts Union has vowed not to end the insurgency. More refugees are trying to get into the country using illegal routes before joining their clansmen in the camps. However, most of them are being intercepted on the border and returned by security personnel.

The UNHCR had expected more than 100,000 refugees to cross over to Kenya. Gun prices have risen as the demand has gone up following the fighting between ICU and Transitional Federal Government backed by Ethiopian troops.

Other nationalities in the camp are Sudanese, Rwandase, Burundians, Congolese and Ethiopians.