Kenya's Somalis: Caught Between Power and Profiling
- By Hassan M. Abukar
Posted on
<
http://africanarguments.org/2014/06/23/kenyas-somalis-caught-between-power-
and-profiling-by-hassan-m-abukar/> June 23, 2014
Aden Duale is an example of a Kenya-Somali politician who remains in a
powerful position whilst the country's Somalis are caught up in an
aggressive security drag-net.
The ongoing Kenyan government security sweep against Somalis has generated
reactions both serious and comical. In May, the visiting Chinese Prime
Minister, Le Keqiang, vowed to help Kenya in its efforts to repatriate
illegal Somalis back to their country. Beijing's offer was an attempt to
curry favor with the Kenyan government, with which it then signed a trade
agreement worth several billion dollars. The premier reiterated what his
hosts wanted to hear: illegal Somalis and those suspected of having ties
with Al-Shabaab must be deported from Kenya.
Even more absurd was the statement by Somalia's State Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Buri Hamza, in its dangling of the khat card (a mild stimulant
plant known in Kenya as miraa). In an interview with the Standard on June
1st, Hamza alluded to the possibility of a trade war between Mogadishu and
Nairobi. "If we stop importing miraa," the minister stated, "so much the
better." Many in Somalia are addicted to khat, and it would be a herculean
task-not to mention political suicide for the Mogadishu regime-to ban its
importation from Kenya.
On a more serious note, the security sweep exposed fissures in Kenyan
society and added controversy to the ongoing debate about the role and
position of Kenyan Somalis in the country. The Somali factor in Kenyan
politics is paradoxical. On the one hand, Somali Kenyans have been gaining
increasing power in politics and business, but they have also become victims
of periodic profiling and mistrust.
In the 1960s, Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta, became increasingly
frustrated with the persistence of the Shifta fighters in the predominantly
Somali-inhabited region of the Northern Frontier District-now the North
Eastern Province-who were agitating to secede from Kenya and join their
brethren in Somalia. Kenyatta saw no difference between the Shifta and
ordinary Kenyan Somalis - he was known to repeat the aphorism: "mtoto wa
nyoka ni nyoka" (a child of a snake is still a snake). Kenyatta came up with
his own solution to the problem when he told them plainly: "Pack up and go,
but leave us the land." The Somalis understandably shunned this directive
and stayed.
Five decades later, Kenyatta's son, President Uhuru Kenyatta, has cast a
dragnet aimed at Somalis which directly and indirectly affects not only the
country's large contingency of refugees and immigrants but also Kenyan
Somalis.
Kenyan Somalis inhabit a vast north eastern territory which is one of the
poorest and least-developed regions in Kenya and are also concentrated in
the Eastleigh district of Nairobi. The Somali Kenyan population has grown
from several hundred thousand in the 1960s to approximately 2.3 million now,
but still represents a minority among the country's 43 million people.
In 1989, two years before the onslaught of Somali refugees in Kenya, the
Kenyan government singled out Somali Kenyans to carry a pink ID card in
addition to the identity document issued to all Kenyan citizens. This pink
card, which highlighted the government's discriminatory stance toward
Somalis, was declared unconstitutional in 2003, but, even so, Somalis still
remain the target of harassment and extortion. In Eastleigh, police
officers, whether assigned there or not, routinely make money by stopping
and harassing Somalis, legal or illegal. Somalis in Nairobi call themselves
"Human ATMs."
The label gained credibility when a large number of Somalis, briefly
detained in the security sweep, secured their release by bribing police
officers. Oddly, some elected Somali officials in the Kenyan parliament were
themselves stopped and briefly detained, even though they had shown the
police their Kenyan and parliamentary IDs. Ali Abdi Bule, a Tana River
senator, was stopped and detained for half an hour because police officers
said his papers were false. The police then released him. In another
incident, Senator Billow Kerrow's house was searched in clear contravention
of his parliamentary immunity.
On the flip-side, Somali Kenyans are experiencing a golden age in terms of
their high representation in the corridors of political power. They have
solid representation in Uhuru's Jubilee Coalition Government, with three
cabinet portfolios-foreign affairs, industrialization, sports/culture and
arts-which are headed by Somalis. A Somali is serving as the chairman of
the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and two are
sitting judges in the country's highest courts: One in the Supreme Court and
the other in the Appeals Court. President Uhuru's legal advisor is also
Somali.
In the past, ethnic Somalis have held important positions, including
Minister of Defense, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, National Chief of
Police and Head of the Election Commission. The number of Somali
parliamentarians on the legislative branch has increased from 13 a year ago
to 32 today. Aden Bare Duale, a politician known for his bombastic rhetoric,
holds the post of the National Assembly majority leader. He told a Somali
audience in Eastleigh in April that elected Somali officials were, for all
practical purposes, in control of the government. "We know how to unlock
this government," he boasted.
In business, Eastleigh has become a residential haven and a booming business
hub for Somalis. The district is the umbilical cord and the economic center
of the Somali community and Duale asserts that Somalis manage most of the
real estate developments in the country and 80 percent of the fuel trade;
they own 80% of all of Kenya's imported goods, and one of every five cars.
Many Somalis from the diaspora have also invested heavily in Kenya,
particularly in real estate.
Is the increasing prominence of Somalis in politics and business the reason
law enforcement is profiling and targeting them? Somali politicians and
opposition figures have argued that the security campaign is an attempt to
disenfranchise Somalis as a group. The Secretary General of the Orange
Democratic Movement (ODM) opposition party, Peter Anyang' Nyong'o, suggested
that the security crackdown was a case of ethnic profiling with the goal of
wining back the trust of the West and flushing successful Somali businesses
out of the country.
Somali Senator Billow Kerrow also questioned the real motive behind the
government's campaign. Somalis, stated Kerrow, are known globally for their
business acumen, and the current security dragnet is "an economic war and
not a fight against terror." After almost three months of the campaign, the
government has yet to arrest any suspected terrorist or dismantle a cell. In
addition, Uhuru's government has been dragging its feet to appoint an
independent commission to investigate the Westgate Mall terrorist bombing.
While human rights organizations have condemned the campaign, the dragnet
has also shown the political divide among Somali leaders in Kenya and their
ambivalent approach to security issues bedeviling the country. While all
these leaders condemn terrorists, some have issued statements that further
aggravated the situation and made some Kenyans question how committed Somali
leaders are in the fight against terrorism.
In a televised speech, Duale told an audience in Eastleigh that those
responsible for the bombings in that district should bomb elsewhere. Then,
he oddly mentioned Machakos, a town and major urban center 64 kilometers
southeast of Nairobi, as an alternative target. "Had the bombers targeted
Machakos," Duale added, "Eastleigh would not have been harassed." Duale
later denied making the statement.
The former deputy speaker of the Kenyan Parliament, Farah Moalim, has
alleged in the media that the government, not Al-Shabaab, is behind the
bombings in Kenya. Moalim subscribes to the conspiracy theory that the
United States Government actually finances Al-Shabaab.
But not all Somali politicians in Kenya have spoken against the security
sweep. For instance, the Somali cabinet ministers in the government and the
former Minister of Defense, Senator Yusuf Haji, have yet to issue a
statement about the crackdown.
Somali Kenyans exist in a precarious position. As a group they are
prominently represented in politics and business, but they have also become
a football, frequently kicked by the country's president, his deputy, and
the security establishment. Some Kenyans still view Somalis as aliens who
are business rivals and a security liability. The dragnet is creating a
climate of fear in the Somali community but we do not know yet whether this
is a long-term trend or a consequence of the enduring success of Al Shabaab
in Somalia and increasingly Kenya.
Hassan M. Abukar is a political analyst and can be reached at
<mailto:abukar60_at_yahoo.com> abukar60_at_yahoo.com.
Received on Mon Jun 23 2014 - 11:20:59 EDT