This qualitative study sought to better understand the ways in which women experienced insecurity at one refugee camp in Kenya.
Methods and Findings: Between May 2017 and June 2017, ethnographic semi-structured interviews accompanied by observations were conducted with a snowball sampling of 20 Somali (n=10) and Oromo Ethiopian (n=10) women, 18 years and older, who have had at least one pregnancy while living in Kakuma Refugee Camp. The interviews were orally translated, transcribed, entered into Dedoose software for coding, and analyzed utilizing an ethnographic approach. Four sources of insecurity became evident: Tension between refugees and the host community, intra/intercultural conflicts between the refugee community, direct abuse and/or neglect by camp staff and security, and unsafe situations in accessing healthcare both in transportation and in mistreatment in facilities. Potential limitations include nonrandom sampling, focus on a specific population, inability to record interviews and possible subtle errors in translation.
