Following the long
period of turmoil and political mayhem in Somalia under the reign of Siad Barre,
the country disintegrated into Islands of violence perpetrated by clan warlords.
The country no longer claimed its empirical statehood and its juridical
statehood silently weathered under the heat of decayed governance. What
followed were two-and-a-half decades of intolerance, hunger, death and unending
rivalry in the name of clan war, a war of its own kind never witnessed in the
horn of Africa before. Torn by war and hunger, a banana republic was born in
the horn of Africa. Over 350,000 civilians died and more than 80% of the population
was starving. The situation was catastrophic and there was dire need for
humanitarian assistance. On 9th of December, 1992, the first troop
of Marines arrived in Mogadishu and in a period of less than a month, close to
30,000 US soldiers were in Somalia. The US attempted to intervene in a conflict fueled by inter-clan animosities knowing very well this was not the war it
could win.
The situation went from
bad to worse and the violence intensified especially with the presence of armed
kaffir foreigners. Presence of US
forces awakened an age-old hatred for America and the West at large. This was a sign of the imperialism the holy prophet
had preached against and which the good book had called all to fight against. A
section of the people especially pro-government regions were happy because the
forces protected relief food which they needed dearly. Rebels and war lords
united against the US forces and successfully drove them out. For the first
time, the powerful political hegemon was brought to its knees by hardened
jungle-trained militants. A cloud of triumph enveloped Somalia and most of them
were happy to bid the “white skins” goodbye.
The old sadness crept back
when the civil war resumed this time in full glare. Civilians had nowhere to
hide and rebels took control of relief food centers. Many families retreated
towards the Kenyan border while others fled to Ethiopia. This was the beginning
of more than two-and-a-half decades stay in a foreign country. The international
community offered humanitarian assistance to refugees in Kenya through the
UNHCR and camps were established to host them. Kenya had a responsibility to
protect, an obligation it acquired on acceding to the 1951 UN Convention on
refugees and its subsequent 1967 protocol on refugees. Close to two decades
later, Kenya acceded to the 1969 OAU convention on refugees and in 2006, the
1951 UN Convention was domesticated in the 2006 Refugee Act. To affirm its
commitment, a Department of refugee Affairs was established following the
enactment of the Refugee Act. Kenya became host to a growing number of refugees
evading the bloody civil war in Somalia. The war showed no signs of ending and
most of the refugees found a home in the Daadab camp. By early 2016, the UNHCR
reported that Kenya was host to more than 600,000 refugees. A previous report
by UNHCR in 2010 indicated that close to 50,000 refugees were living in
Nairobi.
Surprisingly, crime
rate soared in Eastleigh area of Nairobi. Asylum seekers had now integrated
with the population. Through the Gulf of Aden, shipments of armaments flowed
into Somalia and spread to the great lakes region .Eastleigh became a hub for
human trafficking and a market for small arms.It also became the transit point
for Somalis destined to South Africa. Illegal passports, Identity cards, birth
certificates and quick visas could now be obtained much easier. Corrupt
government officers and police facilitated crime by protecting the ring of
clandestine operators who planned the movement of refugees from the border to
Eastleigh in return for a fee. Day in day out, Somalis flocked into Nairobi and
others left the country to South Africa. Some were trafficked for cheap labor
in construction and plantations in South Africa. Countries in the Gulf region
showed preference for Muslim domestic workers and therefore scrupulous
recruitment agencies which existed only in fake papers preyed on the increasing
number of frustrated, desperate and
hungry Somali refugees and facilitated their travel to Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
Oman ,Kuwait, Bahrain and other countries. Whether the refugees benefitted from
these dubious briefcase agencies and indeed got genuine employment is not the
essence of this article. Eastleigh also became a market for goods imported from
the Middle East and a booming economy ensued. The statement “If you need
anything, of whatever kind, that you can’t find anywhere else for an affordable
price go to Eastleigh” describes the variety and diversity of the trades in the
place. It’s not in the author’s intention to portray all businesses in
Eastleigh as unlawful.
Was the increasing
number of unregistered refugees the cause of increased crime rate in Nairobi?Should
the taxpayer blame refugees for the increasing terror activities in the
country? It’s no doubt that acts of terror such as the Garrisa University the
Westgate attacks have claimed lives in this country. Who is to blame? The
fragility of the Kenyan government is a product of many
factors.
One of these factors is
corruption. Corruption has buttress roots in the public service which spread
from Ministries to the police force. Its long tentacles further stream from
high public officers in the bureaucracy to the lowest ranks. The chain runs
through the system and this has undermined the states capacity to secure its
citizenry and the nation. Organized crime in Eastleigh and other areas has not
survived without support from hungry, underpaid, extortionist police officers.
With reinforced capacity in the police force in form of vehicles and armament,
there doesn’t seem to be a good reason why crime in this area has escaped the
hawk-eye surveillance of the police force. Instead, police officers turned
Eastleigh and other areas of Eastland such as Mathare, Korogocho, and Kariokor
into money-wells. All they do is to tow behind a land cruiser, occasionally
brandishing their rifles and adjusting their protruding bellies as they do
their rounds for dues from criminals who facilitate smuggling, trafficking and
also operate offices where forged documents are made. This kind of tolerance
has propelled crime to higher levels. Criminals are only in trouble if they are
arrested because they might reveal the circus the police are engaged in.
Secondly, the
fragmentation of political identity and the deliberate creation of a fractured society
in Kenya have weakened the protective capacity of the state. Ethnicity,
tribalism and nepotism reduce social trust and disintegrate national cohesion.
The Northerners especially those in Moyale, Garissa and other areas have been
victims of exclusive politics. Needless to say, patriotism has disintegrated
and today citizen loyalty is highly divided. With politics of exclusion,
national resources have been exploited and shared out unequally and a huge
population has been marginalized. As such, the question of insecurity should be
expanded to include factors that undermine the unity of the state. Factors that
from a glance appear isolated from insecurity. Security analysts have
generically linked insecurity with increase in illegal firearms the
often-repeated “porous border” argument. They have deliberately or
unconsciously ignored latent factors such as poverty, unemployment and the disintegration
of national cohesion which are major factors in strengthening a country`s human
security.
The tenuous nature of
political regimes and short term planning has also highly contributed to
insecurity in Kenya. Kenya has always pursued short term goals aimed at
quelling emergent issues but there has not been strong focus on long term plans
to combat insecurity. Security is beefed up along borders and internally
whenever there has been an attack. Heavily armed patrols were common after
grenade attacks in Nairobi and after the Westgate and Garissa attacks. Eventually,
things return to an “artificial normalcy” and the state relaxes its reins. Most
of the plans in place including those geared towards economic development are
basically tied to political interests .Opportunists use security issues to
amplify their political agenda yet security is a crucial matter that should
never be politicized. One wonders why for instance the Somali refugee issue has
arisen just a year to the general election. Could this be perfect timing for
the Jubilee government to demonstrate its attempts to secure the state or it’s
just coincidental?
International law on
refugees in one way has been a challenge to states seeking to secure themselves
from intruders. Article 31 of the 1951 convention regarding refugees who enter
a state unlawfully states that contracting states shall not impose penalties to
illegal refugees on account of their illegal entry or presence. This means that
refugees escaping hostile situations in their country of origin can simply slip
between borders whenever possible and enter other states territory without fear
of arrest or detention. Kenyan authorities may argue that they did not open
their doors to Somali refugees willingly and therefore argue that its within
the state`s right to expel them but this will definitely contravene
international law and the Convention.
Is the government
genuine in blaming Somali refugees as the major cause of Kenya`s insecurity?
The answer is definitely no. The Kenyan government should start by addressing
internal factors that contribute to insecurity. How about cleaning-up the
police force and the bureaucracy? By reducing the level of corruption amongst
the police, illegal immigrants will be controlled. Secondly, systemic change is
required so as to incorporate all individuals within the state in national
development and growth. This will completely erase the existing feeling of
alienation among the Northerners and a change in attitude amongst them will
raise the level of allegiance to the state or patriotism. Only secluded
individuals with no sense of belonging will at any time be used to attack
citizens of their own state. This step is essential especially now that
terrorism has shifted its dynamics. Today, terrorists can be of any origin as
opposed to the past when it was majorly correlated with individuals of Arab or
Somali origin.
Should Kenya repatriate
Somali refugees? This question can be approached from a moral perspective and
also a legal perspective. I will address the latter because it constitutes a
basis for decision making. Kenya acceded to the 1951 UN convention and the OAU
protocol of 1969. Kenya has complied with the requirements of the Convention
and has granted Somali asylum seekers a home for over 25 years. The principle
of non-refoulement (spelled out in Article 33 of the Convention) is embedded in
international law and it states that a refugee shall not be forced to return to
his/her country of origin where he/she fears attack on her life or a threat to
freedom. However, Article 33(2) clearly states that on grounds of state
security where a refugee is considered a threat to the security of a country
and its citizens, the host state has a right to expel or return the refugee to
country of origin irrespective of the prevailing situation in that country.
Kenya cited insecurity among other issues such as economic strain as major
reasons for seeking to repatriate Somali refugees. Grounds for insecurity must
be established to execute the repatriation plan in a transparent manner. The
insecurity argument forwarded by Michael Kibicho is shaky and lacks supportive
evidence. The argument that Somalia is settled and that refugees will be at
peace in Somalia is highly debatable. Finally, sobriety may have resumed in
some areas but militia is still in control of vast areas and the banana republic
in Somalia is yet to gain empirical statehood especially with bandits and
militants still revolting against it.
