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Somali refugees in Kenya's Dadaab refugee complex say they are yearning to head back home, but many are still unsure about the security conditions in areas liberated from al-Shabaab.

Adan Hussein Abdi, 46, a refugee in Dabaab, says he is homesick and wishes he could be back in his home country to witness the historic moment as Somalia forms its first central government in more than 20 years.

"It is a hard life squatting in the camps. Our freedom of movement and other rights are limited. The food ration refugees receive at the camps has reduced significantly and we fear the aid could dry up altogether," he told Sabahi.

The food-relief distribution centre provides three kilograms of maize, wheat flour, porridge, and a cup of cooking oil every two weeks, which is barely enough to feed a family, he said.

"For these reasons and many others, we hope the new leaders will work for the interest of greater Somalia so that some of us can head back and rebuild our lives," he said.

Maulid Ali Osman, a 32-year-old refugee in the Hagadera camp, said he feels envious of South Sudanese refugees who have been heading back to help develop their country since it gained independence last year.

Osman told Sabahi he is waiting for the time he will be able to get head back. "The [South] Sudanese refugees found us here in the camps and they have left us. We wish them well and I pray we will not be in the camps for long," he said.

Timira Abdi Ali, 42-year-old mother of four, says she fled to Kenya when a teenage boy blew himself up in a crowd in her local market in 2009, killing her son.

Ali, who now lives at the Ifo camp within the Dadaab complex, said the incident terrified her so much that she had vowed never to go back. However, recent security improvements in Somalia are changing her mind, she said.

"My children are still terrified with the experience of killings, gunshots, explosions and rocket launches back home, but I am determined to head home," she said. Ali said security has to be guaranteed before refugees will head home, however.

Continued disappointments with security

Some refugees say they have lost count of the times they returned home only to find out that things were still the same. Somalia's new government has to be able to sustain security over time to make a difference, they say.

Abdi Yarre Hussein, 47, who arrived in the Ifo refugee camps in October 2011, said that every time he thinks peace has returned he is proven wrong.

He said he works as a gold merchant and runs a money-transfer bureau in Somalia, but is reduced to squatting in Kenya when security deteriorates. "It is has become routine; I head back to Somalia when it is calm and take cover in Kenya when [Somalia is] tumultuous," Hussein told Sabahi.

New arrivals at the camp mostly rely on well-wishers and relatives for food as they wait to be issued refugee cards that enable them to queue for food rations and medical services provided at the camp, he said.

"We are little bit ashamed but circumstances force us to line up for humanitarian assistance. Most of us run businesses that can provide for extended families back home. We only require a moment of peace, which has been elusive," said Hussein, a father of four.

Life goes on

Refugee camps are often portrayed as full of misery and despair, but they are also a thriving business hub for petroleum products, second-hand vehicles and spare parts, electronics, textiles, satellite dishes and their boosters, mobile phones and foodstuffs.

"Instead of mulling over the war back in our country, life has to go on," said Adow Hussein Abdi, who runs a pharmacy and a medical laboratory in the Hagadera camp.

Abdi, who fled Somalia in 2000, told Sabahi that some of the refugees operate learning institutions. The camps have also numerous medical colleges, whose graduates run private clinics in the camps. "All this is in preparation for when we will have peace at home," he said.

The graduates from these refugee-run colleges are fondly called doctors, teachers and engineers, he said.

"We might be lacking a stable government back home, but we do not lack business minds. Were it not for the violence back home in Somalia, we would have developed it," Abdi said.