Registered refugees and asylum-seekers totalled 871,568 as of 31 August 2026. Of these, 640,091 hold refugee status and 231,477 are asylum-seekers whose claims are still being processed. Two years earlier, in February 2024, the registered total was 744,747, so the population has grown by roughly 17 percent since then.
Most of that growth traces back to the resumption of registration in Dadaab, along with new arrivals from South Sudan, Burundi, Eritrea, the DRC, Somalia and Ethiopia.
Source countries, ranked
| Rank | Country of origin | Refugees | Asylum-seekers | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somalia | 330,452 | 151,349 | 481,801 | 55.3% |
| 2 | South Sudan | 213,122 | 123 | 213,245 | 24.5% |
| 3 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 45,217 | 21,926 | 67,143 | 7.7% |
| 4 | Ethiopia | 29,115 | 14,241 | 43,356 | 5.0% |
| 5 | Burundi | 10,569 | 24,562 | 35,131 | 4.0% |
| 6 | Sudan | 7,665 | 6,110 | 13,775 | 1.6% |
| 7 | Uganda | 893 | 3,527 | 4,420 | 0.5% |
| 8 | Other countries | 3,058 | 9,639 | 12,697 | 1.5% |
| Total | 640,091 | 231,477 | 871,568 | 100% |
Data as at 31 August 2026. Totals and shares are calculated from separate refugee and asylum-seeker tables. "Other countries" includes smaller groups such as Eritreans and Rwandans.
Somalia and South Sudan together account for almost 80 percent of the total. Burundi is the country to watch on the asylum side: about 24,600 of its 35,100 registered people are still asylum-seekers, which points to recent arrivals. South Sudan is the opposite, with 123 asylum-seekers against 213,122 recognised refugees.
How the numbers have moved since February 2024
| Country of origin | Feb 2024 | Aug 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Somalia | 415,761 | 481,801 | +66,040 (+15.9%) |
| South Sudan | 175,510 | 213,245 | +37,735 (+21.5%) |
| DR Congo | 59,392 | 67,143 | +7,751 (+13.1%) |
| Ethiopia | 38,207 | 43,356 | +5,149 (+13.5%) |
| Burundi | 31,912 | 35,131 | +3,219 (+10.1%) |
| Sudan | 12,468 | 13,775 | +1,307 (+10.5%) |
| Uganda | 3,813 | 4,420 | +607 (+15.9%) |
| Others (incl. Eritrea, Rwanda) | 7,684 | 12,697 | +5,013 (+65.2%) |
| Total | 744,747 | 871,568 | +126,821 (+17.0%) |
South Sudan grew fastest among the large groups, and Somalia added the most people in absolute terms, more than 66,000.
Where refugees live
Registered refugees and asylum-seekers are spread across three areas, and two of them hold the vast majority:
| Area | Population (31 Aug 2026) | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Garissa County (Dadaab) | 429,352 | 49.3% |
| Turkana County (Kakuma and Kalobeyei) | 323,662 | 37.1% |
| Nairobi (urban) | 118,554 | 13.6% |
Dadaab
The Dadaab complex was set up in 1991, when refugees fleeing the civil war in Somalia began crossing the border. It was originally built for about 90,000 people. It now consists of three camps, Dagahaley, Hagadera and Ifo, plus the Ifo 2 integrated settlement. Hagadera has historically been the biggest of the three.
The complex has shrunk and swelled repeatedly. It fell below 220,000 in 2020 after years of voluntary returns to Somalia, then climbed back above 430,000 by 2025 as registration resumed and new arrivals came in.
| Date | Registered population, Dadaab |
|---|---|
| 30 April 2025 | 431,216 |
| 31 May 2025 | 432,380 |
| 28 February 2026 | 406,702 |
| 30 April 2026 | 414,748 |
| 31 May 2026 | 417,767 |
Dadaab is still overwhelmingly Somali, at over 97 percent, though it also hosts people from the DRC, Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Eritrea and Ethiopia.
I couldn't find a current published breakdown showing how many people live in each individual Dadaab camp. The last per-camp figures I could confirm are from 2014, and they show how the complex was distributed at that time:
| Camp | 2014 population |
|---|---|
| Hagadera | 106,968 |
| Dagahaley | 88,486 |
| Ifo | 83,750 |
Those numbers predate Ifo 2's reopening and the recent growth, so they describe the shape of the complex rather than today's split.
Kakuma and Kalobeyei
Kakuma was established in 1992, originally to shelter more than 20,000 Sudanese children known as the "Lost Boys of Sudan." Kalobeyei, in the same part of Turkana County, opened in 2015 to accommodate the growing number of South Sudanese refugees after the conflict that began in late 2013. It was designed as an integrated settlement, with development and agricultural programmes meant to serve refugees and the host community together. Both sites are managed as one registration area alongside a small group registered in Eldoret.
| Location | 30 Apr 2025 | 31 May 2025 | 28 Feb 2026 | 30 Apr 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kakuma Camp | 224,082 | 224,335 | 226,353 | 229,004 |
| Kalobeyei Settlement | 79,035 | 79,685 | 82,720 | 83,462 |
| Eldoret | 2,304 | 2,394 | 2,418 | 2,422 |
| Kakuma area total | 305,421 | 306,414 | 311,491 | 314,888 |
As of April 2026, Kakuma Camp holds about 73 percent of the area's registered population, Kalobeyei about 27 percent and Eldoret under 1 percent.
Over the year from April 2025 to April 2026, Kalobeyei grew by 4,427 people (5.6 percent) while Kakuma Camp grew by 4,922 (2.2 percent). Dadaab moved the other way, shrinking by 16,468 (3.8 percent) over the same period, so the balance between the two regions is slowly shifting toward Turkana.
Nairobi and other urban areas
The urban caseload, covering Nairobi, Mombasa and Nakuru, stood at 118,144 in April 2026 and 118,554 by August. That is about 14 percent of all registered refugees and asylum-seekers, and the figure has stayed almost flat over the past year.
A status change for the camps
In November 2025, the government officially reclassified both Dadaab and Kakuma as municipalities, ending their formal status as temporary camps.