A
forthcoming Al Jazeera documentary takes an in-depth look at the
grievances that Kenyan-Somalis have toward the Kenyan government and how
Al Qaeda-affiliated group Al Shabaab is taking advantage of this to
establish a foothold in the region.
Not Yet Kenyan,
filmed just before the Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi, exposes how Al
Shabaab militants and their sympathizers have carried out a series of
attacks in North Eastern Kenya to test the resolve of Kenya’s security
system before bringing their campaign of violence to the capital.
In
the documentary, Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Adow travels to his
hometown of Garissa in Kenya’s North East Province to investigate the
escalating violence caused by serious insecurity in the region.
Mohammed
asserts that the horrific massacre at Nairobi’s Westgate mall, although
shocking, was not surprising. Following Kenya’s invasion of Somalia in
2011 there have been more than 100 revenge attacks in the country by al
Shabaab and its sympathizers.
The KDF operation in
Somalia was named ‘Linda Nchi’- Kiswahili for protect the nation. But
residents of this part of the country have not been protected, leaving
them to suffer at the hands of both the militants and Kenyan security
forces whenever attacks occurred.
Local resident Omar Yusuf
shares his distress: “We feel very insecure, bearing in mind the police
station is just 300 meters away. Killing someone is becoming as easy as
slaughtering a chicken so you keep on counting your days. If you wake
up tomorrow, just thank God.”
Another resident holds the
government accountable and vents his anger to Mohammed: “I blame our
government, which sent its troops into Somalia and let al Shabaab
fighters loose on us. It’s the government that is to blame.”
The
film also takes a look at the historical injustices carried out against
Kenyan-Somalis, including massacres of hundreds in the Garissa and
Wajir districts of the Province. Before Kenya’s independence in 1963,
the North East Province, known then as the Northern Frontier District,
voted to be part of the new Somalia state. The Kenyan government’s
refusal to accept the will of the people led to an independence struggle
which has shaped the attitudes of both the population and the
government ever since.
The separatist war that followed
between Kenyan-Somalis and the Kenyan Government, known as the Shifta
War, has remained one of Africa’s forgotten conflicts. An inability to
prevent retaliation attacks on security forces led to a government
response of collective punishment against the people, promoting an
atmosphere of anger and mistrust.
Mohammed
remembers the attack on his hometown of Garissa following the deaths of
three government officials in 1980: “There was collective punishment –
there was raping of women, killing of men, women and children, burning
of houses – in retaliation. I still don’t understand what would make the
Government punish an entire community, an entire town.”
The
documentary reveals that 50 years after Kenya’s independence, collective
punishment is still used widely against Kenyans of Somali ethnicity.
In
an attempt to get answers, Mohammed talks to Kenyan police spokesman
Charles Owino, who echoes the sentiments of former government officials
by denying any responsibility for attacks against Kenyan-Somalia by
security forces. “It’s a lie, it’s an exaggeration, and it’s indecent to
blame the government for primitive actions.”
Despite
all this, Mohammed remains hopeful. “President Uhuru Kenyatta has
sought to reassure us that the country is united and tolerant. I hope
this is true. I hope that some good can come from the terrible tragedy
at the Westgate Mall and we can finally move on from the mutual
suspicion and mistrust of the Shifta war years. I hope that fifty years
on, the dream of independence can finally be realised. One nation, where
we are all Kenyan.”
Not Yet Kenyan airs on Thursday, 14 November 2013 at 20:00 GMT on Al Jazeera English.
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