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Saturday 12 April 2014

[RwandaLibre] Is Operation Usalama Watch a Somali Gulag?

 

Is Operation Usalama Watch a Somali Gulag?

Updated Saturday, April 12th 2014 at 23:36 GMT +3
By BILLOW KERROW

Last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta was in Kigali where he apologised
to Rwanda for Kenya's silence and failure to intervene and stop the
1994 genocide. The Rwanda genocide was triggered by ethnic profiling
of the minority Tutsi community following a spate of attacks.

Ultimately, when a missile hit the plane carrying President Juvenal
Habyarimana, it was instantly blamed on the Tutsi and the mass
killings started spontaneously. Years later, French judicial
investigators concluded that the missile that sparked the genocide was
in fact fired by Hutu extremists at Kanombe Military barracks.


Before President Kenyatta's departure to Rwanda, the government
ordered the most dreadful exercise of ethnic profiling of the Somali
community in Eastleigh on grounds that they were responsible for the
spate of attacks in Nairobi. Last month's explosion in Eastleigh that
triggered the profiling was blamed on the community, even though no
evidence has been adduced in this regard.

The community has been stigmatised and portrayed as "terrorists" by
the xenophobic narrative of the State, and other Kenyans psyched
against them. God forbid, should any other explosion occur tomorrow,
ordinary Kenyans may turn on the Somalis!

I am not an alarmist but many prominent Kenyans are already forming
that unfortunate impression. A couple of weeks ago, the Managing
Editor of a major Kenyan newspaper opined in his column that "every
two-bit Somali has a big dream — to blow us up, knock down our
buildings and slaughter our children." The social media is awash with
similar mindsets that blame Somalis for all the terrorist actions,
notwithstanding the painful reality that more Somalis have died in
these attacks than any other community.

See also: Several aliens arrested in Narok security operation

In early 1950s, thousands of Kikuyus were detained in concentration
camps by the colonialists following attacks by Mau Mau. Uhuru's father
was one of the victims of this horrendous action by the British, and
survivors are still seeking remedy in Britain.

Today, thousands of Somalis are held in similar detention camps at
various police stations and Kasarani stadium in Nairobi undergoing
profiling. The script is the same; the actors are different. The
British Gulag policy that incarcerated Kikuyu's is now the
government's prescription for Somalis.

Regrettably, the government seems to be reading from Mzee Jomo
Kenyatta's script. In March 1967, Jomo's government ordered police
into an Isiolo mosque in which seven respected Muslim worshippers were
massacred. The government told Parliament the dead were thugs the
security forces were pursuing. In February this year, the government
ordered police into Masjid Musa in which seven worshippers were
killed. The government told Parliament that the youth were Al Shabaab
sympathisers. The Isiolo conflict then was an attempt to economically
disenfranchise the community.

To most Somalis, the police action in Eastleigh aims to disenfranchise
the community economically by disabling its main business hub. At the
height of the 1960s Shifta war under (Jomo) Kenyatta's regime, the
government targeted the Somali economy too by decimating its
livestock. A 1971 UNDP/FAO report reveals that in Garissa and Isiolo
alone, camel population reduced from 200,000 to 6,000, and sheep and
goats reduced from 500,000 to 38,000 at the height of the conflict.

It is a strategy the colonialists used too; before the Second World
War, Somalis were not allowed to own shops, and were not allowed to
engage in livestock trading. As the conflict escalated, Jomo told
Somalis in Northern Kenya to "pack up and go but leave us the land".
Is today's persecution a precursor to the same narrative?

Terrorism is a global scourge affecting many countries and ours is no
exception. Blaming the Somali community collectively is wrong and will
create more resentment towards the State and radicalise its youth. We
went into Somalia to pursue Al Shabaab knowing there will be a price
to be paid. And that price should be borne by all, not the Somalis
alone. Uhuru owes us an apology too!

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000109277&story_title=is-operation-usalama-watch-a-somali-gulag

--
SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
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