GARISSA MASSACRE IN 2015 VS WAGALLA MASSACRE OF WAJIR IN 1984
By Mohamed Yabarag
While the condemnation of the recent cruel killings of innocent students in Garissa is pouring from the four corners of the world, the people of the Northern Frontier District (NFD) – a region exclusively and historically inhabited by ethnic Somalis but ceded to Kenya by the British – have been suffering at the hands of successive Kenyan governments in the past five decades with impunity. The Wagalla massacre of ethnic Somalis by Kenyan forces on 10 February 1984, in Wajir county where more than five thousand men and women were taken to an airstrip (Wagalla airstrip) and prevented from accessing food and water for five days before being summarily executed by Kenyan forces did not draw a whimper from the international community. Literally, nobody shed tears for them (looma ooyaan). Only a handful of countries friendly to the then government of Somalia made some feeble remarks on the matter. The so-called international community has simply turned their backs. Even though Wagalla massacre represents the worst human rights violations in Kenya’s history, no government official was ever indicted for this heinous crime and the whole episode was eventually swept under the carpet.
Similar crimes with lesser barbarity were committed by the Kenyan forces against ethnic Somalis in Kenya during the Shifta war (1963 – 1967) when ethnic Somalis unsuccessfully tried to join their brothers in Somalia. In the Shifta war, the Kenyan counter insurgency units forced civilians into what they described as “protected villages”, or concentration camps if you call by their proper names, where their livestock was burnt down to ensure a slow death of Somali pastoralists. The history of the Somali region in current-day Kenya is littered with such horrible stories committed against ethnic Somalis. And yet we hardly see or hear any condemnations labelled against successive brutal Kenyan regimes.
The Background of NFD
The Northern Frontier District (NFD) came into being in 1925, when it was curved out of Jubbaland region in current-day southern Somalia. On June 26, 1960, four days before granting British Somaliland independence, the British government declared that all Somali-inhabited areas of East Africa should be unified in one administrative region, which in the end turned out a broken promise and another betrayal of the Somali people. However, after the dissolution of the former British colonies in the region, Britain granted administration of the Northern Frontier District (NFD) to the newly-decolonized Kenyan government despite an informal plebiscite demonstrating the overwhelming desire of the region’s population to join the newly-formed Somali Republic and the fact that the NFD was almost exclusively inhabited by ethnic Somalis. Once again, Somalis was dealt with yet another hammer blow by Britain following the giving away of the grazing land of Hawd and Reserved area (Ogaden) to Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia nine years earlier. As a result, the Somali nomads were brought under the cruel administration of a government that has little in common with its new subjects. With NFD now gone, the successive Kenyan governments enacted a number of repressive measures intended to frustrate and dissuade Somalis from joining their brethren in the north of the border. Consequently, Somali community leaders suspected of involvement in the so-called Shifta war were apprehended and routinely placed in preventative measures where most of them remained well into the late 1970s.
Despite all those hard measures imposed on them, the people of the region continued to maintain their brotherly relationship with their fellow Somalis on the other side of the colonial border. Their loyalty was never taken for granted despite late improvements in some aspects of their lives. The relationship between the brotherly people even grew stronger following the collapse of the Somali state in 1991 when hundreds of thousands of fleeing Somalis sought refuge in Kenya, particularly in former NFD.
Kenyan Invasion of Somalia
Following several high profile incidents in Lamu island resort where Western tourists were kidnapped and killed, Kenya Defense Force (KDF) invaded Somalia on the pretext of fighting Al- Shabaab on its turf – southern Somalia. Many experts, including members of IGAD warned the Kenyan government against such an invasion, voicing their fears that a prolonged and messy war will throw the whole region into chaos. I myself wrote an opinion piece on the issue in Wardheernews. It was obvious to many the presence of Kenyan forces in Somali soil, seen by majority of Somalis as their eternal enemies, will stir up more hatred towards the invading army and bring back old memories from a community reeling from past Kenyan transgressions. According to the original plan, or at least what was told to the world, the invasion should have been short and quick, but that theory has short-lived. With the Kenyan invasion now well into its fourth year and the fact that there is no exit strategy in sight, at least for the foreseeable future, the fear of Somalis that their country may succumb to Ethio-Kenyan conquest under the guise of AMISOM is fast becoming a reality. People of southern Somalia have suffered immensely under the KDF occupation where a low-paid and ill-disciplined force harass, torture and rape local women with impunity almost on a daily basis. This has created resentment among the local population and subsequently emboldened the terrorist group Al-Shabab who found a breeding ground for more recruits in the Somali-inhabited lands on both sides of the border. The Garissa slaughter may have a correlation with the marginalization of Somalis in the NFD as one of the perpetrators was a highly-educated local boy from the region whilst the other three are confirmed to come from Mombasa and the far western district of Bungoma in proper Kenya according to Daily Nation newspaper.
Conclusion
The Garisssa killing should be condemned by everyone with an ounce of humanity in their blood. It is despicable and cowardly act on the part of the perpetrators whoever they may be. But my fear is that this would be an excuse for the Kenyan Defense Force (KDF) to trample on the rights of ethnic Somalis in Kenya as has always been the case when such incidents take place. The omen is not looking good: Kenyan forces have already started bombing Somali villagers in Gedo indiscriminately where Al-Shabab has no permanent or visible camps to target for such punitive bombing. One can imagine the damage such a low-paid and ill-disciplined force could do to the local Somali community. As a result of the Garissa massacre, Kenyan authorities have taken measures that will have a severe economic impact on the vibrant, tax-paying Somali community in Eastleigh, Nairobi.
They already shut down the accounts of many Somali businesses and individuals in what is purely a kneejerk reaction and a collective punishment that was always the hallmark of the Kenyan authorities. Moreover, the largest Somali refugee camps in Dabaab and Kakuma are now facing a forceful eviction without due process. The current Somali government led by President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud is not expected to say much about the plight of Somalis in Kenya as most of his ministers and many high government officials made their second homes in Nairobi – the de facto Somali capital. Nor do the Somali-Kenyan representatives in Nairobi who, judging by their public statements, seem to be more Kenyan than the Kenyans. The prospect of Somalis in Kenya, whether they are refugees or the long suffering local residents in NFD, is indeed very bleak. The Garissa massacre may have all the world talking about it and condemning in loud voices, but the Wagalla massacre in 1984 where thousands upon thousands of ethnic Somali villagers perished was far worse in terms of death and human suffering, not to mention psychologically, than the Garissa one. The difference is simply being that while Wagalla victims were Muslim Somalis, the Garissa victims were largely Kenyan Christians. The Mohamed Adow’s recent Aljazeera documentary on the region was a reflection of this painfully reality. The international community shall call evil by it is proper name wherever it resides.
Mohamed Yabarag
Email:Myabarag@gmail.com
Email:Myabarag@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment