​​A massive challenge presents for host countries to manage and integrate incoming displaced people. East Africa is one of the sub-Saharan African regions experiencing an enormous refugee influx. Somalis and South Sudan refugees are a majority and are estimated to represent 80% of the refugees in Kenya; the Somali refugee crisis in Kenya is a significant problem, housing more than 200 000 Somali refugees in camps and cities. This field study aims to comprehend the integrating experience of urban Somali refugees within the scope of durable solutions. The study seeks to understand how various individual, family, and clan ties and characteristics aid urban Somali refugee integration. The theories chosen to guide this research is Sen's capability approach along with the social capital theory. This thesis has been delimited to only focus on the Urban Somali refugees living in East Leigh, Nairobi neighborhood. According to recent research, urban Somali refugees often need help with obtaining the necessary documentation to live freely and fully in their host countries. This lack of official documentation can pose significant barriers to accessing necessities such as housing and employment, making it challenging for refugees to integrate fully into their new communities. Additionally, refugees face discrimination and xenophobia, which can further impede their integration efforts. Interestingly, the study found that clan affiliation was crucial in facilitating integration, even more so than factors such as gender or social class.

This is a study on how Somali and Oromo refugees manage under uncertain circumstances in Eastleigh, Nairobi. Fleeing from war, persecution and violence, the refugees expected to find protection and a quick transfer to a third country, which was not the case. Instead, they ended up in being stuck, unsafe, and questioned. The refugees aimed for resettlement to a third country; a decision depending on approval from the hosting state, a receiving state, and UNHCR. This process normally included 8-10 years or more of waiting and a positive answer was not guaranteed. The spatial realities in displacement in Eastleigh included a status of illegitimacy, socioeconomic hardships, and unpredictability of an eventual resettlement in a third country. In the protracted waiting for resettlement they struggle to become part of the place but in the state of transit, and in an excluding context, they are in-between – in a liminal state in both space and time.