Mandera

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Mandera is a town in North Eastern Province, Kenya. It is capital of the Mandera District. The town is located at around 3°55′34″N, 41°50′46″E, near the borders with Ethiopia and Somalia. It has a population of 30,433 (1999 census) [1]

It is located in an area prone to drought. From late 2005 there has been a severe famine. Local people are mostly of Somali tribes, some of them refugees from war-torn Somalia. Majority of the local people are from Murule and Garre tribes. Smaller proportion represent the Degodia tribe.

The region is prone to clash between clans who dominate the area. Clan clashes between Garre and Murule clans in Mandera district has so far claimed at least 100 lives since it erupted in December 2004.

The killing of a Garre relief worker by suspected to be a spy working inside the Murule land was killed by Murule gunmen on 19th December 2004 at Fino-Elwak road junction and triggered the clashes. This killing led to simmering hostility between the two clans, degenerating to full-scale overt confrontation in January 2005.

A number of issues have been advanced to explain the cause and genesis of this clan conflict.

In 1988, Mandera Central constituency was curved out from the then larger Mandera East where Murule dominate following devastating clan clashes between Murule and Garre clans in early 1980’s. This creation of a new constituency was envisaged at cooling simmering tensions between the two clans over political representation.

With Mandera Central constituency formed, the issue of political representation was solved but another problem was born. There emerged growing hatred and suspicion between the two clans. Differences began to widen to an extent that the clan leadership and chiefs from both clans started to openly mobilise their clan members for the domination of the other.

And to worsen the already fragile situation, the KANU administration (especially between 1982-2002) created many administrative units (sublocations, locations and divisions) in hitherto community-grazing areas in the district, mainly for political mileage. The disputed Alango location (both clans claiming ownership of the two locations, one in Mandera East and the other in Mandera Central constituencies) is a good example of conflict arising from creation and or competition over administrative units. Chiefs and their assistants in the location and other neighbouring locations have been clamouring that their boundaries have been interfered with.

Murule and Garre clans are accusing each other of harbouring and supporting foreign militia in their locations. Watering livestock at Alango Dam has often resulted to confrontations and armed violence with unpleasant repercussions.

Although the creation of additional administrative units was meant to make ‘services closer to the people’, it is important to point out that that has not been the case in Mandera and adjacent districts. These additional locations and sub locations have mainly contributed to the escalation of conflicts in the entire North Eastern province, because clans which felt they have an upper hand in the politics were "out manouvered" by others.

On the other hand, the power struggle between different factions in Somalia has spilled over to the Kenyan side. Each of the clan has been trying to forge military alliance with their counterparts in Somali.

The Murule have allegedly forged an alliance with the Eldera section of the larger Marehaan clan of Somalia, which are a power house in the Gedo region of Somalia.

On the other hand, the Garre clan in Mandera district has forged an alliance with their Garre kinsmen in Ethiopia and Somalia. This alliance is also backed by Ororsame section of the Marehaan, a section that has been in loggerheads with the Eldera.

It is also rumored that these alliances are being forged ahead of the 2007 general elections as each group intends to mobilize enough voters to sustain their political representation and or supremacy.

The highest votes of the previous general election of 2002, was dominated by current MP of the Mandera East, himself a Murule.Hon. Shaaban Ali Isaack, the current Member of Kenyan Parliament and also a government Minister in charge of urban authorities(Councils).see [2]

Competition over access to pasture and water resources in the district has been the traditional cause and trigger of conflict between the two clans. The Garre community wants herders to be confined to their traditionally designated grazing areas. Murulle community who happen to own substantial number of livestock including camels but have a smaller grazing area are of the opinion that the former’s position is meant to confine them to a very small grazing area, which cannot sustain their huge camel herds and deny them access to pasture on the western flank of the district, which is mainly inhabited by the Garre.

Civil Action projects, supported through the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), a U.S. led multi-nation group based in Djibouti, has established a closer working relationships with local people of Arabia, Mandera East in order to end the threat of terrorism in the region.

The U.S. Ambassador to Kenya William M. Bellamy on January 2004, presided the construction of the Arabia Secondary School in Mandera District of Kenya's Northeastern Province. He was hosted by the area M.P., the Hon. Shabaan Isaak.

The Arabia Secondary School project is by far the largest of many similar "Civil Action" projects in Kenya. Over the past year U.S. military and counterparts in the Kenyan Department of Defense Projects have worked together on projects at various locations in that area. U.S. soldiers and the Kenyan military cooperated over the past several months on that project to refurbish and expand facilities at the school, located some 70 kms . south of Mandera town.

The Arabia Secondary School now has a library, a new dining hall and kitchen, and an additional classroom building. As a result, the number of students attending the school will increase from 160 to 240. The U.S. committed a total of 7.3 million Kshs. to underwrite the project, using local contractors and supplies.

Notable among personalities from Mandera include The Barclays Bank of Kenya Managing director, Adan Mohamed and former Law Society of Kenya(LSK) Chairman, Ahmed Nasser among others