State should enlist Somalis among 2014 resolutions

In 2011, Kenyan troops took the anti-terrorism war into Somalia. Kenyan Somalis have been victims of terrorism

When I started working, even before I got my first pay, I acquired my first jacket from a Somali trader. But this could not just pass as any other acquisition. It was the only way I retained my maiden teaching job, for it required one to dress formally, in a suit. 

It was not only the pocket-friendly prices that earned Rashid Omar loyal customers amongst Makindu residents, but also his allowing customers, even first time customers, acquire stuff and pay for them later at their paces. How could he just trust us? From the ingenuity and resilience of this trader one could hardly tell that he belonged to the most marginalized community in Kenya. 

None of the Kenyan communities has experienced half the suffering that the Somalis have gone through. Kenyan Somalis have been marginalized for decades. Only for the world to train its cameras there when famine wrecks havoc in their midst, or terrorists kill and abduct residents of Garissa, Wajir.

Explaining this state of affairs is deep-seated suspicion, engineered and let to brew for eons. British colonialists feared that dealing with Kenyan Somalis would pose administrative challenges. This constituency could become slippery, and easily ebb into Somaliland, they opined.  Ever since, Kenyan Somalis have been discriminated against. 

Today, Kenyan Somalis pass as dubious, foreigners, and terrorists. That it is relatively difficult for Somalis to acquire national identification documents complicates the maze. Desperate to enroll for social services, and register businesses, those who are capable result to bribing authorities to acquire these essential documents. 

Paradoxically, this marginalization by the state peaked immediately Kenya became independent from its colonial masters in the 1960s. In 1984, the government of the day oversaw the beating, raping and killing of over 5000 Somalis in what became the Wagalla Massacre. Chilling survivor stories in Mohammed Adow’s Not Yet Kenya posit that Kenyan authorities tossed bodies of the Somalis who succumbed the gory atrocities into Tana River. None of the successive regimes has shown any resolve to recognize Somalis as Kenyans enough. 

Kenyatta’s administration effectively thwarted the miniature efforts to serve justice on the Somalis gained during the Kibaki regime. It is common knowledge that the editing and shelving of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) Report spells doom for any prospects of serving justice to the perpetrators of the Wagalla Massacre. The international community has not been helpful, either.  

IGAD, often bragging as the institution solely responsible for ensuring that Somalis remain on the global map, has had nothing to show for championing for the cause of the Somalis. The clamor by Ambassador Mahmoud Maalim, IGAD’s Executive Secretary in a Nairobi forum in November that IGAD is committed to ensuring peace and stability in Somali flies in the face of the reality on the ground. Just like IGAD, the global community has been consistent in scapegoating Somalis for insecurity and terrorism, a precursor for collective punishment. 

Imposition of the Hawala system by the United States and other Western bigwigs is the height of the affliction of the Somalis. The wisdom behind this ban in international money transfer is that Somalis living in diaspora are the financiers of terrorism. How careless!

Drawing the line between terrorism and a community is a no brainer. In fact, Somalis have become the greatest victims of terrorism activities in the region. Not so long ago, a grenade hurled at bus in Pangani, Nairobi left seven people dead, four of them Somalis. But the world would stop at nothing to use the thickest of brushes to tar Somali, justifying the imposition of collective punishment. 

Just like denying Somalis national identity cards and branding them terrorists, taming the transfer of funds to the ubiquitous Somali families located in Somalia, and Kenya, for instance, the world is uniting in ensuring that future Somali generations do not acquire education. Under development in North Eastern Kenya greets travelers. 

Naturally, this turn of events breeds anger and frustration among ordinary Somali folk, scholars, diplomats, journalists and politicians. Telling from the ensuing antagonism, things are no longer rosy. When, for instance, Dr. Ibrahim Farah of the University of Nairobi describes the AU mission in Somali as a “proliferation of mafia groups,” it is clear that all is not well.  

In a recent forum in Nairobi, Mymunah Mohamed, a Somali entrepreneur felt that the current Somali leadership is to blame for complacency. Mohamed is not alone. More Kenyan Somalis support the thesis that Somalis are to blame for their woes. Emerging from this is that the problem facing the Kenyan Somali is amorphous and calls for concerted efforts.  Ironically, having Somali leaders in leading coalitions does little to ameliorate the state of the Kenyan Somali.

If the Kenyatta administration is determined to bring social harmony in Kenya, its 2014 resolution should be serving justice to the Kenyan Somalis. To make this happen, the state should encourage efforts that go into reversing the suspicion on the Somalis. It could start by allowing more Somalis to sit in the committees steering the LAPPSET project. 

Among the most sustainable ways of taming terrorism is by taking Kenyan Somalis onboard. Judging from its geographical spread on a cultural watershed, this community can be resourceful as a human barrier, and through community policing, wade off insurgents infiltrating through the precarious Kenya-Somalia border. However, this anti-terror approach cannot work when suspicion against the Kenyan Somalis reigns. Failure to address injustice amongst Somalis, the Kenya government is setting a dangerous precedence.  

Meanwhile, according to Adow, Kenyan Somalis are learning a lot from their kin in Somalia. For instance, they are learning to become more aggressive.  One can only hope that this translates into the acquisition of rare business acumen and resilience exhibited by Rashid Omar as he transverses the dusty sunbaked Makindu market, carrying with him loads of apparel, jewelry and perfumery.