), total petroleum production: 0 bbl/day (2021 est. When applying for a passport Kenyan Somalis had to complete a special form for applicants claiming citizenshipwho do not belong to an African tribe indigenous to Kenya. Hansard (Parliamentary Debate), April 28 1994, House of Representatives Official Report 1 (22), Republic of Kenya, p. 579. "Ambiguous citizens": Kenyan Somalis and the question of belonging Changing fortunes in Ethiopia's Ogaden | Features | Al Jazeera Anderson, Remembering Wagalla, 662663. 36. Kenyan Somalis are drawn back and forth between an emphasis on their ethnic Somaliness and their belonging to Kenya as citizens they share their socialization with other fellow Kenyans, but are treated as if not quite belonging to Kenya. 103. )hydroelectricity: 32.6% of total installed capacity (2020 est. Kenya's young and growing population presents a huge market for investors. Although Kenya in 1967 was the first Sub-Saharan country to launch a nationwide family planning program, progress in reducing the birth rate has largely stalled since the late 1990s, when the government decreased its support for family planning to focus on the HIV epidemic. Hassan mentioned Islam as the main element linking ethnic Somalis from Kenya and Somalia. In 1884, the British declared that the Ogaden region belonged to Ethiopia, but Kenya refused to recognize this decision. ), 5.325 million NAIROBI (capital), 1.440 million Mombassa (2023), at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female0-14 years: 1.01 male(s)/female15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/femaletotal population: 1 male(s)/female (2023 est. Most Samaal clans are widely distributed pastoralists, although a . They did so out of feelings of alienation, but also due to the perception that they were losing out to Kenyan Somalis from the northeastern region, who at this time acquired higher positions in the Kenyan administration.Footnote102 Furthermore, the economic situation of Kenya deteriorated in the 1990s and many families feared to lose their (lower) middle class status which they had preserved after independence.Footnote103 Renewed interest in moving away resulted from the securitized policy of the Kenyan state since 2013.Footnote104 To go to Europe, the two brothers had to become more Somali by learning the language properly. In Dadaab: refugees v locals | Global development | The Guardian ), urban population: 29.5% of total population (2023)rate of urbanization: 4.09% annual rate of change (2020-25 est. Ethiopia: Prospects for Peace in Ogaden | Crisis Group In the case of Kenyan Somalis, this notion is further complicated. Giving Informality Room. Ethiopia was deemed the ripest for immediate action. People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read. 108. Both the increased visibility of Somali politicians in Kenya, even in areas with a non-Somali majority population, and the growth of the Kenyan Somali population, according to the 2009 census, have intensified anxieties about Somalis taking over Kenya. Simultaneously, Islam can serve as a means for claiming entitlement for higher positions in Kenyan society, a significant argument in consideration of actors with an overtly Christian commitment standing at the core of Kenyan politics. Kenyan Somalis seem to be ambiguous in both of them. Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between Somalia and Tanzania, total: 580,367 sq kmland: 569,140 sq kmwater: 11,227 sq km, five times the size of Ohio; slightly more than twice the size of Nevada, total: 3,457 kmborder countries (5): Ethiopia 867 km; Somalia 684 km; South Sudan 317 km; Tanzania 775 km; Uganda 814 km, territorial sea: 12 nmexclusive economic zone: 200 nmcontinental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation, varies from tropical along coast to arid in interior, low plains rise to central highlands bisected by Great Rift Valley; fertile plateau in west, highest point: Mount Kenya 5,199 mlowest point: Indian Ocean 0 mmean elevation: 762 m, limestone, soda ash, salt, gemstones, fluorspar, zinc, diatomite, gypsum, wildlife, hydropower, agricultural land: 48.1% (2018 est. 68. This was widely celebrated across the Ogadeen population in the Horn of Africa and in the diaspora. note: data are in current year dollars$20.408 billion (2019 est. 80. HRW, Death and Disappearances, 1213. ), -$5.744 billion (2021 est. )agricultural: 3.23 billion cubic meters (2020 est. Basil Kimutai on Twitter: "Kenya's young and growing population Ibrahim, The Checkered History, 1617; Interview with Nabiil, Nakuru, October 2010. Collective punishment, however, persisted in the North Eastern Province. They were employed as government clerks and soldiers in the Kings African Rifles, or they were involved in trading activities. Even though these statistics do not allow conclusions to be drawn about identification processes in daily life, they hint at the desire by Kenyan Somalis to be accepted as ordinary citizens of the state. Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, July 21, 1993, p. 1524. Abdullahi left Nakuru immediately after recovering and started a new life in Nairobi. 11. Interviews with Amina, 2010, and with Ijaabo, Mombasa, August 2016. This prevalence of extended kin-networks and of living in co-ethnic neighbourhoods is, however, not only true for Kenyan Somalis, but widespread in Kenya (and beyond). We use cookies to improve your website experience. On the massacre see also TJRC, Final Report 2A, 221367, and Sheikh, Blood on the Runway. This paper is based on research into the interlinkages of different groups of ethnic Somalis in Kenyan urban centres, using the example of Nakuru, the fourth biggest city of Kenya (and to some extent Nairobi and Mombasa). . The most credible attempt at talks to end decades of armed conflict in Ogaden may soon . Kenyas Somalis, however, occupy the most ambiguous situation of all. Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). Even though Kenyan Somalis have been treated as ambiguous citizens since independence, the question for many of them is not so much if they belong to Kenya, but rather how. In the 1970s, Somalia, supported by the United States, invaded Ethiopia, igniting the Ogaden War, which Somalia lost due to timely military intervention from the Soviet Union and its ally Cuba. The Ogaden is the historical name for much of the current SNRS. [7] The Ogaden clan "constitutes the backbone of the ONLF ". These fears were at the core of two discussions I was present at, taking place during the Coast Regional Peace Summit, Mombasa, 2011 and among Kenyan participants of a Conference on Refugees and Forced Migrants, Kilifi, 2016. )5.73% (2020 est. Refworld | Somalia: Information on the Ogaden clan in Somaliland No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. But the Somali dwellers outside North Eastern Province were those who really suffered.Footnote20, Although the emergency regulations persisted until the early 1990s, the northeastern region and its inhabitants became gradually more included into the Kenyan state.Footnote21 After a foiled coup in 1982, President Moi incorporated Somali elites into his apparatus to secure his power base,Footnote22 enabling some of them to make a career in the state administration. If you are coming from a very different background, its difficult to match the same level. )spirits: 0.81 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est. Lonsdale, Soil, Work, Civilization, 309. His grandfather served as Sergeant in the colonial-era Kenya Police. (English)The World Factbook, Chanzo cha Lazima Kuhusu Habari ya Msingi. The Ogaden War 1977-78 In Kenya, Mogadishu merely supported local armed groups to further its irredentist ambitions, but in Ethiopia, it launched a full-scale war. When asked how they would identify when having to choose between the two, Kenyan Somalis were not only among those groups with the highest rates of choosing a national (Kenyan) over an ethnic identity, this trend deepened between the years 20052006 (about one-third of the Somali respondents) and 20162018 (about two-thirds of the respondents).Footnote108 In the same period, their feeling of being (often or always) treated unfairly by the government because of their ethnicity declined in the opposite direction (from about 70% to about 40%). The first and biggest are the inhabitants of the northeastern region of Kenya, bordering Somalia and Ethiopia. Nobody questions the connection of Kenyan Somalis to the soil of the northeastern region, where most of them live: what is disputed is the question of whether or not this makes them Kenyan. These gray spaces develop through the interaction of different actors, many of them non-Somali Kenyan politicians, but as well Somali elites, who use their position to shake off competitors. Interview with Ibrahim, Nairobi, September 2010. the report brings us up to date on a 20 year-old insurgency waged by some Ogadeeni members of the larger ethnic Somali population in parts of the Ogaden region, which stretches across south-eastern Ethiopia and the borders of Kenya and the Somali territories. One of the biggest took place in April 2014 as usalama watch (security watch), when police went to urban neighbourhoods where ethnic Somalis live to arrest foreign nationals and terrorism suspects.Footnote74 The government also used extra-judicial killings and disappearances mainly in the northeastern region, returning to strategies employed under emergency regulations.Footnote75 Thirdly, the border to Somalia was temporarily closed and in 2015 Kenya started to build a wall along it. The Portuguese arrived in the 1490s and, using Mombasa as a base, sought to monopolize trade in the Indian Ocean. I met only a few Kenyan Somalis who had family networks spanning across the border to Somalia or who had moved for work reasons to Somalia. Even the existence of Somali heroes, as seen in the Westgate Mall AttackFootnote100 or initiatives against that image (#KenyaImNotATerrorist)Footnote101 do not seem to change this picture. In the late 19th century the Ogaden was claimed by both Ethiopia and the Italian protectorate of Somaliland. Changes in identification over time are also indicated by the Afrobarometer data concerning ethnic versus national identification. . )biomass and waste: 1.2% of total installed capacity (2020 est. This means: at an individual level, an Ogaden from there might feel the urge or need or might be compelled . )carbon dioxide emissions: 17.91 megatons (2016 est. Population [ edit] According to the 2019 Kenya census, approximately 2,780,502 ethnic Somalis live in Kenya. As a result, this area remained separated from the rest of Kenya and was ruled under emergency regulations. 11 Mainly . The Sands of the Ogaden Are Blowing Across East Africa Already the debate around the census results showed that even if there is a move towards unity in diversity in Kenya, Kenyan Somalis still have to struggle to be part of this idea. According to Human Rights Watch in 2008, the Ogaden is the largest Darod clan in Ethiopia's Somali Region, and may account for 40 to 50 percent of the Somali population in Ethiopia. )solar: 1% of total installed capacity (2020 est. Mohammed, from the Dhadhaab (or Dadaab) camp in Kenya, described to Ogaden Online (OO) 1/12/2012 how he was captured by the Ethiopian military, accused of being a supporter of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and mercilessly tortured. During the screening of Kenyans of Somali descent in 1989, those considered as belonging to an indigenous lineage were issued pink screening cards.Footnote25 All others were effectively declared non-citizens, losing everything linked to Kenyan citizenship status (such as property).Footnote26 Kenyan Somalis were, as during the Wagalla massacre,Footnote27 on both sides of this event in both cases a small Somali political elite used the events to weaken their economic and political rivals.Footnote28 Even though not all Kenyan Somalis were registered, the pink screening card would be a requirement for obtaining an ID years later. 51. Those elected in 2013 included a considerable number of Kenyan Somalis, some assuming important positions in parliament and government. administered Somali territories of northern Kenya and Somaliland. A. Abdullahi, Kenyan Somalis are Treated Like Second-class Citizens, Daily Nation, 12 April 2014. http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Kenyan-Somalis-treated-like-second-class-citizens-/440808-2277348-pj74alz/index.html. Tabea Scharrer http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5640-116X. Who this term refers to, and if it means insider or outsider, depends on the circumstances.Footnote109 The diverse images of Somalis in Kenya, resulting from different historical trajectories, are aggregated in a meta-image of the ambiguous citizen. Somalia - Clans According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Somalia ranks as fourth-lowest in gender equality 41 . Meanwhile, the situation in neighbouring Somalia worsened, starting with the Ogaden war (1977-1978). 19. 0-14 years: 36.45% (male 10,447,425/female 10,349,611)15-64 years: 60.26% (male 17,196,347/female 17,185,035)65 years and over: 3.28% (2023 est.) UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Fact Sheet, Kenya (01-31 December 2017). In Nakuru, Somalis have their own mosque, which is not part of the local Muslim Association, and also their business activities mainly take place within Somali networks. Kenya Population Census 1962, 34-5. 60. While they have been treated as ambiguous citizens since independence, many think of themselves as Kenyans and at least in the last decade, Somalia, Somaliland and Puntland have not been central points of reference for many. The adjusted numbers published later are still considered dubious by many.Footnote53 Weitzberg has shown how problematic census results were already in colonial times.Footnote54 For nomadic populations, underreporting was observed frequently, as the census logic is linked to a sedentary lifestyle. Because I realized this land was different from the land we were born in.Footnote94 Even though he often spoke about the marginalization of urbanized Kenyan Somalis, he emphasized attending public celebrations of Kenyan national holidays, such as the Madaraka day (in commemoration of Kenyas internal self-rule in 1963). The cruelty with which the sexual violence is committed by Ethiopian army in Ogaden defies all description and that goes far beyond rape according to the testimonies recently collected from the Ogaden refugees in Kenya.
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