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The Somali Question Mwaura Samora World Policy Journal 2013 30: 99 DOI: 10.1177/0740277513506387

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>> Version of Record - Sep 23, 2013

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Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 2, 2014 The Somali Question

Mwaura Samora

AIROBI—Throngs of traders haggle and jostle for goods along busy streets, constantly interrupted by the hooting of matatus, Nlocal public transport vehicles, and the shouting of pushcart driv- ers, known as mkokotenis. This neighborhood is no place for the squeamish. The matatus and the mkokotenis make their way through deep, water-filled potholes, splashing thick, dark liquid onto crowded sidewalks. Like the badly damaged roads, the sewage system in ’s Eastleigh district was

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built by British colonists in the 1920s to tal, shoppers arrive with long, varied lists service a few hundred working-class Afri- and leave laden with shopping bags. From cans and Indians, but now it must bear the clothes to contraband, toy pistols to real waste of over 100,000 residents. Today raw guns, in this Somali neighborhood legal sewage oozes out of thousands of household and illegal trade thrive in equal measure. pipes that have ruptured after decades of The atmosphere is reminiscent of the neglect. The dark green sludge mixes with medieval trans-continental trade centers runoff in the streets to form a foul porridge along the East African coastline. Five-times of human excrement. daily, a muezzin’s call goes out over the But these pools of unsanitary sludge are loudspeakers of the various mosques here, not what is deterring thousands of Nairo- leading many businesses to close their front bians from coming to doors quickly for prayers. “Little ,” Al-Shabab and its supporters have been hosted as Eastleigh is known carrying out attacks in Eastleigh and other the world’s due to its Somali parts of Kenya in retaliation for the coun- population. It is the try’s invasion of . In a recent report, largest grenade attacks. the group warned it may even shift its tac- single group Life has not been tics to target high rise buildings in central of refugees the same in Eastleigh Nairobi. The new security threat cannot be since the Kenyan De- fought with the methods used to solve rou- and asylyum fense Forces (KDF) tine street crimes since its perpetrators are seekers— invaded war-torn So- not common criminals but religious fanat- malia to hunt down ics. Kenyan authorities need to retrain in- more than the al-Shabab terror ternal security agents to gather intelligence 630,000 . group in 2011. Since among Somalis without making them feel then, explosions halt, intimidated or estranged. The local Somali at times violently, the buying and selling population needs to be recruited as inform- in this market town. So far, the attacks ers and spies since they are the only ones have claimed at least 20 lives, with many who can identify al-Shabab elements in more maimed. Nobody is quite sure when their midst. The system of localizing intel- or where the terror will strike next, so ligence gathering is bound to be more ef- whatever visitors still come look over their fective than the indiscriminate large-scale shoulders constantly. While in the past they police sweeps that net innocent people and strolled the aisles, gawking at the displays, sow seeds of hostility between the security now shoppers just grab what they came for forces and local Somali. and hop quickly into the next matatu. Besides designing systems to crush Thanks to its industrious Somali busi- terrorist cells inside the country, the gov- ness owners, Eastleigh is still the only place ernment should increase patrols along the in Nairobi where people can buy almost Kenya-Somalia border to ensure al-Shabab anything. From across the Kenyan capi- elements do not cross over. The govern-

Mwaura Samora is a Nairobi-based journalist and media consultant. He writes for the Kenyan weekly, The Nairobian.

100 WORLD POLICY JOURNAL Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 2, 2014 KENYA ment also needs to tighten its monitoring a matatu people look at me suspiciously. systems around Kakuma and Dadaab refu- The conductor can even refuse to grant me gee centers to ensure Somali asylum seekers entry on suspicion that I might be a sui- remain in the camps, while those absorbed cide bomber.” It is traumatic, he adds, for into the population are carefully screened. innocent people to be labeled as terrorists. There is no single cure-all for terrorism, but Abdi admits that there are al-Shabaab cells taken together, this set of reforms will curb in Eastleigh, most of them abetted by lo- terror attacks while improving the lives of cal Islamic clergy. “Even Somalis like me Somalis in Kenya, who currently face con- are not safe from these terror operatives stant harassment from the state. since they can eliminate you if they suspect that you might expose them to the police,” Cracking Down the second-hand clothes trader explains. When the heavily armed special police “Therefore it’s a very delicate situation, be- units land in Eastleigh, every young or cause sometimes we feel trapped between youthful-looking Somali is a target. Often, a rock (the national security system) and a Somalis are beaten, arrested, and bundled hard place (the bad guys).” into police cars for detention where they With the porous Kenya-Somalia bor- languish for days or weeks with no charges der and corrupt Kenyan immigration of- ever leveled against them. Abdi Dhahir is a ficials and security personnel, Somali refu- 27-year-old Somali trader who sells clothes gees have been flowing freely into Kenya on 12th Street, a busy section of Eastleigh. to escape fighting between African Union He came to Kenya from Somalia with his troops and al-Shabab, and a 2011 famine. parents at the age of five. After staying in According to the UN High Commissioner the Dadaab refugee camp for five years, his for Refugees, as of August 2012, Kenya family found their way to Eastleigh, and he hosted the world’s largest single group of became a Kenyan citizen. Since al-Shabab refugees and asylum seekers—more than started carrying out attacks in Kenya, Abdi 630,000 Somalis. has been on the lookout— not for terrorists, “An in-depth television documentary but for the Kenyan police. showed how a Somali refugee buys his way “We Somalis are now living in fear from the Dadaab refugee center, through not knowing when we will be arrested. It corrupt Kenyan security personnel man- can happen any time—during the day or ning road blocks up to the point where they at night,” Abdi says. “When they arrest disappear into the populous Eastleigh,” says you, the detention is indefinite. You can Hudson Gumbihi, a Kenyan crime journal- be locked in as long as they want.” Abdi ist for the weekly newspaper The Nairobian. says he has been arrested numerous times, Gumbihi suggests that one way to stem the spending days at Pangani and Central po- infiltration of terrorists is caring for secu- lice stations, where it took the intervention rity personnel and dissuading them from of his family members to secure his release. the temptation of bribes. “The Kenyan gov- “The threat is now not only from the ernment should also give Kenyan Somalis police but also from the native population incentives like easy access to personal docu- who view Somalis with a lot of suspicion ments, like identification cards in order for since the terror attacks started in the capi- them to feel patriotic,” he continues. “This tal,” Abdi says. “Sometimes when I board will ensure they report terror suspects since

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taken a huge beating. “Most of the busi- nesses in Eastleigh were getting their sup- plies from towns in Somalia like where there was no taxation. Hence, they attracted a lot of customers since they were cheaper,” observes the Maseno University scholar who is researching Kenyan Somalis. “But since the invasion of Somalia by the Kenya Defense Forces, supplies from these towns have been cut.” Although the current suspicion of So- malis by other Kenyans has been attributed to the rise in terror incidents, some have used the situation to express their long running anti-Somali sentiments. The fact that many Somalis are successful business people, a few with connections to Red Sea pirates, means they have millions of shil- lings to spend, which have enabled them to acquire property in the Nairobi central business district at very high prices. Moreover, in a bid to rid the area around Jamia Mosque, the major prayer center in the city, of bars and nightclubs, Somalis campaigned to buy out entertainment es- tablishments. Several have been bought,

e they will have a sense of patriotic duty.” closed, and reopened as Somali-owned res- c

vi The situation of Kenyan Somalis is taurants and cafes. As for Kenyan landlords,

ser not unlike that of Japanese Americans in many rent or sell their houses to Somalis at d the United States after the bombing of inflated prices, leading some locals to blame orl

W Pearl Harbor. There is state and public wealthy Somalis for rising property rates, distrust, detention, prejudice, and general further fueling xenophobic tendencies. BBC harassment. Just like the wartime Japanese- Americans, Kenyan Somalis are described No-Go Zone as “hardworking and intelligent,” but also In June 2012, two police officers died as “treacherous, sly, cruel, and warlike,” when a hand grenade was thrown at them Gumbihi says. while they were on routine patrol duty Tiberius Barasa, a public policy and in Eastleigh, prompting a massive secu- administration lecturer at Maseno Univer- rity operation that saw residents without sity in Kenya, says Kenyan Somalis “are identity cards rounded up and detained. now viewed as suspects by other Kenyans Last November and December, Eastleigh and whenever there is a terror attack, they became a no-go zone for many Nairobi- become the first victims of police arrests.” ans after a series of bomb attacks claimed Barasa adds that Somalis’ businesses have more than 15 lives and left dozens injured.

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Among those seriously wounded were a broker a special password. The hawaladar member of parliament for the area—Yusuf calls his counterpart at the destination and Haji, himself a Kenyan Somali—and his tells him the amount of money and pass- bodyguard. These attacks triggered two word, details that the receiver of the trans- days of inter-ethnic riots where Kenyans ferred cash must provide before being paid. from other communities clashed with So- This system can be exploited by terrorists malis, leaving several people injured. and other black market merchants because At the time, a government security op- no documents are involved, which makes eration swept up more than 600 suspects, tracing those involved almost impossible. mostly refugees without legal documenta- This system can also boost trade in curios, tion. Intelligence reports linked the attacks qat, and other goods that touched off the sweep to al-Shabab from the informal sec- militants, who were protesting the presence tor, but unfair and il- gun runners of Kenya Defense Forces in Somalia. legal business practic- from somalia Since the terror attacks began, Kenyan es should be curbed to traders who buy wares in Eastleigh are ensure that unscrupu- also collude frightened. “These explosions scared many lous Somali business with their of us who usually get our stocks from people cannot use the agents in Eastleigh on a daily basis to an extent that Kenyan economy to when we go there, we do so hurriedly, like sanitize money origi- kenya to bring going into a war zone,” explains Wilfred nating in dark trades small arms to Karang’e, who buys shoes and carpets from like piracy and smug- eastleigh. Eastleigh for resale in the nearby Thika gling in Somalia. Ke- town. “The ethnic skirmishes greatly af- nya could tap into this fected my business since I couldn’t replen- multimillion dollar transfer system by regis- ish my stocks for some days.” tering the hawaladars such that the govern- Little Mogadishu is one of the most ment profits each transfer. Like the mobile important landmarks, not only for Kenyan money transfer system called M-Pesa, hawa- Somalis but for Somalis everywhere. Thou- la could be harnessed to contribute legally to sands of dollars are reportedly transferred the economy while ensuring terror elements daily through an informal but intricate so- don’t use it for their own selfish ends. cial network called hawala. The Kenyan se- curity apparatus and a host of other govern- Mono-Ethnic Living ments have singled out this global system During the colonial period, British offi- as making it easy for terrorists to finance cials allocated neighborhoods to Kenyans their global operations and engage in other according to race and class, with Eastleigh illegal operations like drug trafficking. being established in 1921 for Indians and Basically hawala works by transfer- African clerks and shoemakers. Many So- ring money through a network of brokers, malis found themselves in Kenya in 1925, called hawaladars, who transfer funds with- after the British hived off a chunk of the out moving them physically. A transaction region in modern day southern starts by a customer giving a hawala broker Somalia to form part of Kenya known as money to transfer to a recipient. When the the Northern Frontier District (NFD). The sender books the transfer, he also gives the rest of Somalia was ceded to as a re-

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ward for its support of the Allies during was named Eastleigh, because most of the World War I. But despite recommenda- RAF personnel came from the town of tions by the British that all regions of East Eastleigh in Hampshire, England. Africa inhabited by Somalis be joined into Police reports say a broad and vibrant one country and the desire of NFD resi- illicit trade thrives beneath the bustle of dents to join their countrymen in the newly normal business in this densely populated created Somali Republic, the Kenyan na- area. Apart from al-Shabab using East- tionalists who took over from Britain were leigh as a hideout and launching pad for unwilling to relinquish the region. NFD attacks across the city, police reports al- residents launched a vigorous campaign to lege gun runners from Somalia also col- join Somalia through the Northern Prov- lude with their agents in Kenya to bring ince People’s Progressive Party. small arms to Eastleigh. From here, police The government of newly independent sources say, the smugglers sell the weap- Kenya brutally crushed the Somali seces- ons to Kenyan criminal elements, fueling sion efforts during the from crime across the city. “The presence of Ke- 1963 to 1967—and it was not the last nyan Somalis makes it quite hard for the time Kenya would violently crack down Kenyan security forces to fight terrorism on a Somali population. In 1984, a mili- effectively because it’s impossible to dif- tary operation to disarm members of the ferentiate between a Kenya Somali and So- Somali Degodia clan led to the seizure of malia Somali,” explains George Musamali, more than 5,000 men who were assembled a former police officer who now works as at the Wagalla Airstrip in District a security consultant. “These people share in NFD. After brutal beatings and torture, culture, religion, and language, and there- more than 3,000 were murdered and many fore they help each other.” more maimed in what became known as He says that from his experience on the Wagalla Massacre. The United Nations the police force, Kenyan Somalis help their later described the incident as the worst hu- countrymen from Somalia acquire Kenyan man rights abuse in Kenya’s history. passports and live in the country illegally, Long before the Shifta War and Wagal- making it difficult for security personnel lah, however, Somalis had begun coming to track criminal elements. “This is made to Nairobi from NFD as railway builders worse by human rights groups who in- and guards of such British Empire fig- stantly come to the defense of the Somalis ures as Lord Delamere, one of the earli- whenever there is an operation in Eastleigh est settlers in Kenya, and Lord Frederick or other places, claiming the Somalis are be- Lugard, who had served as governor of ing harassed by the government.” Hong Kong and governor-general of Ni- Instead of mass sweeps, Musamali says geria. Colonial administrators must have the police should instead focus on unmask- held Somalis in high regard, because they ing al-Shabab operatives, who find it easy were at first allowed to live in Kileleshwa, to fade into the native Somali population. near the Europeans’ neighborhood. They “We need to use Israeli methods to identify were later relocated to Eastleigh, which friendly Kenyan Somalis and train them was known as Kambi ya Somali (Somali in undercover intelligence gathering tech- Camp) until the arrival of the Royal Air niques, then release them into the popula- Force (RAF) in the 1930s. The suburb tion,” the security expert explains. “This

104 WORLD POLICY JOURNAL Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 2, 2014 KENYA will help our forces beat the cover and be nyan officials. The ease of receiving Kenyan able to identify the terrorist elements from citizenship papers increases the ability of the general Somali population.” al-Shabab members to operate in Kenya. Currently, the Kenyan government uses Part of the solution lies in streamlining grass-roots administrators, known as chiefs, the naturalization process and eradicating to gather information on the ground. This corruption among immigration officials. A method is ineffective since few Somalis more transparent, legal path to citizenship open up to government officials. would make it easier for Somalis without ties to terrorism to become productive Ke- Identity Crises nyan citizens and make it harder for cor- Besides being considered a security threat, ruption to enter the process. Streamlining Kenyan Somalis have also suffered from an the naturalization process will also ensure identity crisis. The line between citizens suspicious elements find it hard to acquire and refugees is sometimes as thin as the personal documents. Through better pay identification papers on which they base and stricter punishment, like dismissal their legitimacy. The 2009 national census and jail terms for those found registering figures from nine Somali-dominated dis- people illegally, the Kenyan government tricts in the nation’s northeastern region could also deter its officials from accepting were cancelled after it emerged that So- bribes and looking the other way when So- malis had become the sixth most populous malis, some of whom groups in Kenya. Many government offi- have connections to cials and non-governmental organizations criminal groups, en- for now, kenyan claimed the data was doctored since it in- ter the country. somalis remain dicated the Somali population had risen by After the Ke- 140 percent in barely 10 years. The figures nyans invaded Soma- embedded from 1999 census showed 800,000 citi- lia and brought some in a climate zens of Somali origin while the number in semblance of order of festering 2009 soared to 2,385,572. following the defeat The then Minister of Planning of al-Shabab, the two hostility. Wycliffe Oparanya explained that the countries established decision to cancel the results was taken a joint task force to begin repatriating ref- after inconsistencies emerged. “The rate ugees. Repatriation, however, has become of increase is higher than the population a thorny issue with many Somali refugees dynamics. If you look at birth and death saying they have settled and established rates, they cannot support those figures,” businesses in Kenya and do not want to he said. “Age and sex profiles also devi- return. Still, repatriating refugees will re- ate from the norm.” There were triple the duce the congestion in refugee camps and number of men than women, and popu- cut the major route the al-Shabab have lation growth did not reflect an increase been using to enter the country. Most in the number of households, which was criminal elements from Somalia hide in among the lowest in the country. the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps. This Kenyan Somali population explo- While there, they deal ruthlessly with any sion was likely fueled by illegal Somali im- who dare report them to the police, which migration and facilitated by corrupt Ke- helps explain the abductions and killings

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in these refugee centers in the last few near the Kenyan border. In its war against months. With Somalia’s relative stability, terror and ethnic violence among Somali the Kenyan government should halt the clans in North Eastern province, which entry of refugees and continue to plan the borders Somalia, the Kenyan government repatriation of those living in Kenya. sent elite police divisions to expel or kill The government of Kenya should also al-Shabab fighters. increase its patrols along the Somalia-Ke- For now, Kenyan Somalis remain em- nya border to control the infiltration of ter- bedded in a climate of festering hostility. rorists and illegal small arms into the coun- The takeover of the Somalia operation by try’s North Eastern region. The Kenyan a joint pan-African force is certainly a step government, says Tiberius Barasa, a public in the right direction since al-Shabab will policy and administration lecturer at Mase- no longer have Kenya alone as a target for no University in Kenya, should increase its revenge. They will have to attack Uganda, military’s border presence, ensuring that Burundi, and a host of other countries who terrorists cannot enter the country so easily. have contributed to the African Union’s military mission. Roots of Evil Kenya should consider rewarding Ke- The Kenyan government’s effort to fight nyan Somalis who provide vital informa- crime and terror should not be perceived tion leading to the arrest of terror suspects as a systematic anti-Somali campaign but or smugglers. Rewards should range from rather a means of removing the bad ele- government scholarships to job placements ments from its Somali population. “The and citizenship for those who have lived Kenyan government should also take the here for more than 10 years. Though not security operations in the Somali-dom- an absolute remedy to the perpetual threat inated northern Kenya seriously,” says of terrorism, these measures will create a Barasa. “They should deploy the military sense of patriotism and belonging among there just like they did in the Operation Somalis living in Kenya. It will also re- Linda Nchi”—code name for the Kenyan store the status of Eastleigh as a shoppers invasion of Somalia in 2011 that led to paradise, where buyers can stroll without the removal of al-Shabab from its strong- the fear and worry of grenade attacks. And holds in cities like Kismayo and Afmadow business will boom again. l

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