In 2008 refugee journalists in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, set up KANERE, a news reporting project 'to counter the monopoly on information enjoyed by humanitarian organisations that largely control access to and information about refugee camps.' They believed that a refugee free press could ‘open up new spaces for public debate and action on refugee encampment.’ But KANERE’s unwillingness to allow aid agencies to play a role in the publication appears to be putting both the future of the project and the safety of its team in jeopardy, as this background note outlines.

In October 2008, several refugee and Kenyan journalists met in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, to discuss the development of a press in Kakuma using the Kanere Free Press. In previous years, they had been involved in a camp newsletter, produced by the refugee journalists, but edited by humanitarian agency staff and only intended for local in-camp circulation. That newsletter had eventually collapsed, but the journalists had continued to meet together and analyze the news events in their local milieu.