This research explores the relationship between UNHCR and the Government of Kenya. It focuses on the re-engagement of the government in refugee affairs since 2006 and more specifically the transfer of registration and refugee status determination from UNHCR to the government.

Based on ten months of research in Nairobi, Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps, including within the government Refugee Affairs Secretariat, it explores everyday bureaucratic practices and how these changed through 'capacity building' by UNHCR. It also explores the wider negotiations between these two institutions and the perspective of individual bureaucrats constituting the process.

The research sits between the disciplines of politics and anthropology and aims to contribute to ethnographies and theories of the African state and developmental change.