Localizing the state: Stateness among refugee–led community‐based organizations in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya.

The localization of humanitarian operations is commonly characterized as a return of ownership to local and national actors. Localization policies in Kenya have made refugee‐led community‐based organizations a viable alternative for humanitarian provisioning. Simultaneously, localization facilitated the ongoing enlargement of the Kenyan state into refugee management. Incidentally, the Kenyan state has introduced limitations on community‐based organizations' international funding and registration through a verification process. Drawing on 12 months of ethnographic research in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, this article explores how community‐based organizations mediate Kenyan state control through verification. The article develops the concept of "stateness" to examine how refugee actors claim legitimacy as a state function. Stateness is generated by members of community‐based organizations through practices involving fellow refugees and Kenyan state actors. Using stateness, this article seeks to draw attention to how refugees can become a part of wider state apparatus and shape how the state is constituted within the camp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]