The situation of Somali Bantu refugees has been studied in the USA and, to a lesser degree, in the refugee camps of Kakuma and Dadaab, but not in self-settled urban contexts in East Africa. This qualitative study, a needs assessment of the Somali Bantu refugee community in Nairobi, Kenya, contributes towards filling that gap in the literature. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews with both Somali Bantu refugees and staff of refugee-serving NGOs in Nairobi provided rich ethnographic data. Research questions focused on perceived needs and assets of refugees, community support structures, and NGO services available to Somali Bantu refugees. The results of the study showed how systems of marginalization and oppression found within Somalia are reproduced within the urban refugee environment of Nairobi. It also revealed how this marginalization was exacerbated through the systems set up by refugee-serving NGOs. However, the study also demonstrated refugee agency and aspirations, revealing strategies employed by individual refugees to improve their situation as well as multi-local and transnational kinship networks of mutual support.