By Hassan Yusuf

I am not posing the influential author Miguna Miguna’s question; is Kenya a country of apes? But a different one, as I believe apes are peaceful creatures. Is Kenya going down the same path of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda? It may sound to you extreme or impossible, but it happened in small scale in Kenya’s 2008, as marked by the   postelection violence. And it can happen now as the people ( in power), who were implicated in the 2008 deadly violence are ethnically targeting Somalis for political expediency.

In brief, according to Kenya’s 2009 census, the Somali population is about 2,385,572 people- a figure disputed as many pastoral people are not accounted for. Additionally, over 500,000 refugees from Somalia live mainly in refugee camps. In addition, large Somali communities from mainly Europe, North America and Gulf countries heavily invested in Kenya.

Somalis live in the North-eastern part of the country-the most underdeveloped region in Kenya. The total area of North eastern region is approximately 127,358 square kilometres. In the capital, Somalis live predominately in Eastleigh (dubbed as little Mogadishu).  Eastleigh is a commercial suburb of Nairobi.  Eastleigh attracts its patrons all the way from, Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania. Moreover, Eastleigh is the third largest source of state revenue.

Since independence in 1963, the Somalis in Kenya have been subjected to political and economic marginalisation. Using different tactics, Somalis were once pigeonholed as shiftas (pundits). As a result, the1980s atrocities of the Wagalla massacre and Garisa Gubay were committed against Somalis by the Kenyan establishment (see Aljazeera documentary Not Yet a Kenyan).

In 1989, the Kenyan government ordered all Somalis of Kenyan origin to carry separate pink ID cards, in addition to the national identity card carried by all Kenyans. It was deemed unconstitutional and in 2003, it was repealed.   Luo people in Kenya also live in Uganda and Tanzania. Just like Somalis live in Djibouti and Somalia. But the Luo people are not called Luo Kenyans. They are not also subjected to double ID cards.

Recently, there was an attempt by the government to link the Somali capital in booming property market and piracy. But, this exercise ended in vain. The ethnic targeting seems unrelenting. Somalis are now pigeonholed as terrorists. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism by the Kenyan authorities, Somalis living in Kenya have been on the receiving end of robbery, rape and arbitrary arrests.

Today, thousands of Somalis (most of them women and children) are detained in overcrowded police stations. Many others are rounded up in the city’s Kasarani football stadium (referred as Kasarani concentration camp). This is, to say the least, a diminution of human dignity.

Kenya has a responsibility to protect its own citizens from terrorism including Somalis. Somalis are the victims of terrorism too. Kenyan parliament legislator, Yusuf Hassan-a Somali, was recently wounded in a night-time grenade attack in Eastleigh. Garisa suffered spate of terror attacks compared to the rest of the country.

Ironically, all the allegations levelled against Somalis, no single Somali has yet been convicted of terror charges in Kenya.

On the other hand, Kenyan government’s claim of weeding out illegal Somali refugees is the most unconvincing justification.  Somalia is still unsafe. And Kenya ratified the following international treaties: 1951 Geneva Convention, 1976 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1990 Convention of the Rights of the Child and 2000 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

However, the refugee business in Kenya is lucrative and Kenya is the monopolist. Kenya will never covertly allow the Somali refugees to go back. Predominantly, the Somali refugees are entrepreneurs who employ thousands of other Kenyan tribes. Others get remittances from their families in abroad. There are hundreds of ghost NGOs which claim to serve the so called Somali refugees.

So the whole argument becomes highly convoluted when indigenous Somalis and UN registered refugees indiscriminately rounded up and subjected to despair and anguish.

Behind the façade of Operation Usalama is a continuation of the script of Uhur’s predecessors. And more precisely, an attempt to restore Western power’s allegiance. This is a view shared by many scholars and politicians.  Among them is the former Kenyan parliament deputy speaker Farah Moalim.

Sir Edward Clay-former British High Commissioner to Kenya wrote: 

“Following the horror at Westgate, some seem to think a choice must be made between bolstering Kenya in its fight against terror and letting off its President and his deputy from their cases at the ICC. After Westgate: Uhuru Kenyata must go to Hague”.

Democracy is more than just casting a vote. Despite the appeal of all 32 Somali members of the Kenyan parliament, ministers and civil leaders, the operation to cut down the Somalis is still continuing.

When recently the majority leader of the National Assembly of Kenya, Aden Duale questioned about the treatment of his people by the government, he was quickly portrayed as terrorism sympathiser. Is terrorism synonymous with Somalis or Muslims? It is a mind-boggling!

Nairobi Law Monthly publisher Ahmednasir Abdullahi wrote:

“Fifty years of abuse and neglect is too long to endure. But it is not that Kenyan Somalis don’t want to be part of Kenya. It is Kenya that does not want Somalis in Kenya” (Daily Nation).

Somalis in Kenya make significant contributions to business, academia, politics and military. Disenfranchising and collectively punishing whole community is not the remedy of terrorism.

Kenyans are peace loving and religious tolerant people.  The current government policy towards the Somalis and Muslims is seen as emblematic of past troubles in Bosnia and Rwanda. The alarmist outpourings of the government, amplified by the Kenyan media, will create deep hostility between Kenyan tribes. However, dehumanisation towards the Somalis will remain a spectre haunting Kenya.

Hassan Yusuf Waal
Email:hassaneksaato@hotmail.com