Browsing by Author "Opiro, Bismark"

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    UGANDA’S GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES TO INTEGRATE REFUGEES IN KIRYANDONGO REFUGEE SETTLEMENT, 1954–2014: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
    (Gulu University, 2026-10) Opiro, Bismark
    This study examined Uganda’s government initiatives to integrate refugees in Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement from 1954 to 2014 from a historical perspective. It was guided by three objectives: to examine the refugee laws and their effectiveness in governing refugee integration in Uganda; to assess the forms of government initiatives to integrate refugees in Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement; and to examine the challenges of refugees’ integration among host communities in Kiryandongo. The study was anchored on historical institutionalism and adopted a qualitative approach and a historical research design. Data were obtained from laws, official government and UNHCR documents and published literature, including archival records reproduced in published studies, and from 105 participants comprising refugees, host community members, block leaders, officials of the Office of the Prime Minister, local government officials and representatives of non-governmental organizations, through key informant interviews, individual interviews, focus group discussions and observation. Data were analyzed through source criticism, thematic analysis and chronological historical analysis. The study found that refugee law evolved from the control-oriented Control of Alien Refugees Act of 1960, which confined refugees to settlements and denied them a path to citizenship, to the rights-based Refugees Act of 2006 and the Refugees Regulations of 2010, although implementation remained constrained by limited resources and administrative discretion. Government initiatives in Kiryandongo progressed from colonial land allocation for displaced Kenyans in 1954 to the gazetting of the settlement in 1990, the Self-Reliance Strategy of 1999 and the reopening of the settlement in 2014, with land allocation, settlement farming and shared education, health and market services as the main forms of integration. Integration was, however, constrained in every period by land pressure, competition over natural resources, unequal distribution of services, insecurity, political suspicion and cultural differences. The study concludes that Uganda’s approach to refugee integration in Kiryandongo was shaped by a colonial settlement model that later governments adapted rather than replaced, so that economic integration advanced further than legal and social integration.