By Mohamud H. Khalif
I read, with interest, the piece by Prof. Peter Kagwanja entitled “Kenya needs strategic mindset to engage ‘global Somalia’”, (Kenya needs strategic mindset to engage ‘global Somalia’ | Nation) which appeared in the Daily Nation on June 4th, 2023. The article tackles a motley of loosely connected subjects the common thread of which is their relevance to the Somali nation, though they may not all dovetail into each other coherently. In the coming paragraphs, I will touch upon some of those subjects to provide a Somali perspective to the discourse.
The article contains a number of innuendos and insinuations against Somali Kenyans (and Somalis everywhere for that matter) that are disguised as platitudes. Enumerating the senior security sector positions occupied by Somali Kenyans, for instance, smacks of a veiled attempt at directing a malevolent attention at a Kenyan community that is merely enjoying its citizenship rights. The rise of ethnic Somali Kenyans to key Government positions comes as a welcome contrast to—and a well-deserved respite from—the pernicious marginalization suffered by the community since independence and until recently.
In the paragraph in which the good Professor mentions the efforts of the President of Somalia to get his country admitted into the East African Community (EAC), he speaks of Al-Shabaab and their quest to establish a caliphate, which to me is a coded warning to the wider membership of the EAC. Al-Shabaab are known to be a despicable transnational terrorist group, the brunt of whose nefarious violent project befalls on the Somali people. For the latter to be a victim of the former in diplomatic circles, leading to the possible denial of the Somali government to join regional outfits like the EAC is indeed a travesty of justice of the highest order.
The leadership of the EAC should be cognizant of the fact that the long and chaotic nightmare through which Somalia has been living over the past three decades will, sooner or later, come to pass. From the ashes of that civil war, a strong and prosperous country will, most likely, rise. The EAC, therefore should consider the application of Somalia on the basis of its true potential as a vigorously dynamic member with enormous resources (human, agriculture, livestock, fisheries and minerals), entrepreneurship and productive global community and business networks.
But the most egregious statement in the article was the reference to Jubbaland as the Alsace-Lorraine between Kenya and Somalia, implying that there is a dispute between the two countries over the sovereignty of Jubbaland. Alsace-Lorraine was a province of France occupied in 1871 and later annexed by Germany, which in 1914 reverted to the sovereignty of France, following the onset of the First World War. Jubbaland was indeed administered as part of the Kenya Colony until it was transferred to Italy in 1925, following the secret 1915 Treaty of London between Britain and Italy as a compensation for the latter’s support to the Entente Powers against the Central Powers. But Jubbaland, along with the Northern Frontier District (later the North-Eastern Province of Kenya and now the six counties of Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, Isiolo, Marsabit and Moyale) had been, at the time of its transfer, part of the East African Protectorate only for 30 years— since July 1st, 1895. The transfer took place on June 29th, 1925. Since then, the region has been, first, under the suzerainty of the Italian Somaliland Colony, and since July 1st, 1960, an integral part of the independent state of Somalia. In a nutshell, Jubbaland had never been part of a legal entity called Kenya, which came into existence 38 years after the transfer had taken place.
How the fleeting status of being a British colony for 30 years can override the reality of more than 98 years is something I cannot wrap my head around. As a matter of fact, the implied and recurrent claim of Kenyan intellectuals of Jubbaland, mainly through newspaper articles, constitutes a bitter irony of Somali irredentism to which Prof. Kagwanja referred in his article. Is it a pre-emptive strike against a future revival of that irredentism, which could, hypothetically speaking, rear its head when Somalia regains its posture among the comity of nations and stands on its feet in the future? That may be a legitimate concern on the part of Kenyan foreign policy wonks. But the approach taken so far seems to be one that is not only problematic but also counterproductive.
It gives the feeling that Kenya — instead of helping Somalia find its bearings at its hour of need to help it become a peaceful neighbor— is taking advantage of Somalia’s misery. There was the maritime case which went to the ICJ, causing a great deal of, in my opinion, unnecessary rancor between the two sisterly nations. The Jubbaland question is somewhat connected to that case, and it invokes the specter of sinister territorial ambitions on the part of Kenya. Annexation of Somali territory by neighboring countries (as part of the colonial dismemberment of the Somali nation) and the cessation of parts of the Republic of Somalia (read the present case of Somaliland) are sensitive and historically painful subjects that friends need to approach, if at all, with tact.
Unlike the direction in which Prof. Kagwanja is nudging Kenyan foreign policy towards Somalia, I would counsel the Government of Kenya to engage with the Somali Federal Government as an equal sovereign state partner. Speaking to and about the Somali people as rudderless clans, diaspora and far-flung communities negates the essence of the statehood of Somalia, however weak or fragile the country might be. The Somalis have always been made up of clans, as Kenya has many disparate tribes. The Government of Kenya should, therefore, help the Somalia Government rebuild its state institutions where it can. But it must leave the resolution of Somali clan disputes, be they in Jubbaland or elsewhere in Somalia, to the Somalis themselves and their state as an internal Somali matter.
The Somali people are grateful to the Kenyan Government, and society at large, for the many good things they have been doing for them since the eruption of the civil war. Considering the level of social intercourse and economic integration between the two nations, it would be counterproductive for untimely territorial ambition misconceptions to stoke negative nationalistic sentiments on either side of the border.
Mohamud H. Khalif
Email: [email protected]
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Mr. Khalif is a Somali political analyst based in Saudi Arabia.
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