The maritime contention between Somalia and Kenya erupted,when Somalia filed a complaint to the ICJ in August 2014. Since then, Kenya kick starts and expedites to target the Somali people. Notably Somalis inside Kenya are the most vulnerable group whether they are businessmen, refugees, immigrants and etc. Kenya tended tormenting the gullible Somali community inside its territory including Dadaab refugee by depriving from their citizenship right and refusing them getting the so-called Passport and the National ID.
HUDUMA NAMBA REGISTRATION
This digital program is launched by Kenya government in order to re-register its citizens. When the Uhuru, the president of Kenya was launching this new project, he says” The reason behind this project is to reassure Identity theft and Financial Transactions” so, if we analyze these two reasons, who is susceptible to this project? Simply, Somalis are the primary target of this panic process. Because, other communities in Kenya are not vulnerable to this process. Somalis are the most people who use HAWALA agencies.
The other side of the coin, Somalis are one of the communities in Kenya. They have Northeastern count including Garissa, Wajir, Mandera counts, and additionally, they are part of the populations in Nairobi. Especially Eastleigh, which is both commercial and residential area. They have colossal of business in Kenya, and they pay the taxes as primary duty on the citizens. With all these, Kenya applies marginalization and downgrading against Somalis.
The other side of the table, Nairobi hosts plenty of Somalia government’s conferences, meetings, seminars, workshops and etc, and they get from these events plenty of money. Theridiculous and premature issue is, when Kenya immigration authority refused the entry visas several Somali politicians and other government officials. Which means, Kenya is applying all its grudge against Somalia which is self-destroying and self-defeating. Even, Kenya’s media is exaggerating the naked aggression of Kenya against Somalia the case of the maritime dispute.
Though, we cannot ignore how Kenya gives support the Somali people during the civil war in 1991 in Somalia, and how they welcomed the Somali refugees who fled from Somalia. Also, Kenya is part of AMISOM troops who is participating the stabilization of Somalia. With all these positive things we recognized and acknowledged as Somalis. But, this doesn’t mean making Somalia accept any exploitation and belittling from Kenya which is against our sovereignty and independence. And this aggression from Kenya erased all previous positives.
#WEREFUSED THE KHAT FROM KENYA
Kenya exports to Somalia miraa (KHAT) and gets back colossal of money. Chewing miraa has bad impact to the society in terms of healthy and money as well. So, as Somalis, we can stop the khat from Kenya, and alternatively, we can deport from Ethiopia if we keep deporting khat. And this courageous decision if we take, I believe Kenya feels instantly hefty damage.
The other appalling decision from Kenya side is, re-routing and re-directing the flights from Somalia to Kenya. Wajir route is panic to the Somali people. Because, plenty of times, the Somali government discussed this issue to Kenya and several agreements have been signed among the two states. So, the big question is, why Kenya is renewing all the time to jeopardize the Somali people?
Anwar Abdifatah Bashir (Freelance Journalist/Horn of Africa Geopolitics Analyst and Independent Researcher)
