administered Somali territories of northern Kenya and Somaliland. Differences in the way Kenyan Somalis respond to the alternating incorporation into and alienation from society can be found within the very same family. 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG. )106.451 (2020 est. Hassan mentioned Islam as the main element linking ethnic Somalis from Kenya and Somalia. 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. ), total population: 70.04 yearsmale: 68.31 yearsfemale: 71.82 years (2023 est. Carrier and Kochore, Navigating Ethnicity, 135. Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, July 21, 1993, p. 1524. The first and biggest are the inhabitants of the northeastern region of Kenya, bordering Somalia and Ethiopia. In the 1960s and 1970s, Kenyans pursued higher education in the UK because of colonial ties, but as British immigration rules tightened, the US, the then Soviet Union, and Canada became attractive study destinations. Kenya Backs Ogaden Peace Effort While she had never before mentioned Somalia, one day she told me that a friend of the family was stopping by more frequently in the last time and it seemed he just wanted to see her. Talking Peace in the Ogaden. The system we have gone through, the schooling, brings people closer together, the way we understand things. Kenya's special envoy to the Horn of Africa, Ambassador Ali Bunow Korane, confirmed recently that the Ethiopian government and leadership of the ONLF have agreed to meet. If you are coming from a very different background, its difficult to match the same level. As in many of the long-term urbanized Kenyan Somali families, Somali was not spoken frequently at home. Similar harrowing testimony -- dismissed as rebel propaganda by the Ethiopian government -- was repeated by various Ogaden refugees who have trickled recently into different parts of Kenya's . The constitution of 2010 not only stressed the idea of political inclusion of all citizens and groups, but also resulted, for instance, in a new Citizenship and Integration Act (2011), which provided among others for dual citizenship. Ogaden STATISTICS Status: Ethnic Minority Areas: 327,068 km2 Population: 4,439,147 (2007 Census) Languages: Somali (95.9%), Oromifa (2.24%), Amharic (0.92%) and Gurage (0.033%) Religion: Muslim (98.4%), Orthodox Christian (0.6%) and 1% others The successful candidate must secure 25% of votes in more than half of the counties, turning northeastern counties into swing regions. )consumption: 8.243 billion kWh (2019 est. Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC). 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. Meeting Kenyan Somalis from the northeastern part of the country, where Somali is spoken more frequently, can lead to a feeling of double exclusion: to be neither accepted as Somali nor to be able to claim belonging to any other Kenyan ethnic group. Talking from the current perspective an old man in Nakuru spoke about the early 1960s: In July [1960] Somalia was declared independent, in October I went there. ), -$5.744 billion (2021 est. Interview with Mzee Jamal, Nakuru, November, 2010. Mzee Jamal, an old Somali man in Nakuru, told me: They had no place for Somalis in Kenya. ), $29.289 billion (2019 est. In high school she played soccer, and she likes walking around in town, even though people recurrently whisper walaal in her direction.Footnote106 For some time, she had a Nubian boyfriend nobody knew about. )note: data are in 2017 dollars, 7.52% (2021 est. ), fossil fuels: 8.3% of total installed capacity (2020 est. North Eastern Province (Kenya) - Wikipedia In 1993, a Somali parliamentarian narrated a justification he was given by the Principal Immigration officer after Somalis were barred from entering the passport-issuing office: A Somali, whether from Somalia or from Kenya, is a Somali because mtoto wa nyoka ni nyoka [The child of a snake is a snake].Footnote110 These processes of inclusion and exclusion can take place almost simultaneously. Thirdly, there are SomalianFootnote2 refugees (officially, they numbered about 285,000 people in December 2017).Footnote3 The last, and smallest, group are the relatively affluent Somalian returnees, who migrated from Somalia to Europe or North America in the 1990s and later returned to East African urban areas. Kenyas persistent rapid population growth strains the labor market, social services, arable land, and natural resources. ), $11.825 billion (2021 est.) In the case of Kenyan Somalis, this notion is further complicated. This paper deals with the way the politics of belonging have been enacted in Kenya in the last decade and what this has meant for Kenyan Somalis. McIntosh, Autochthony and Family, 265. Daily Nation, Kenya Vows to Appeal Verdict Blocking Dadaab Camp Closure, 9 February 2017. http://www.nation.co.ke/news/High-Court-cancels-closure-of-Dabaab/1056-3806030-7enmgdz/index.html; Daily Nation, Weve to Shut Dadaab for Security, Uhuru Kenyatta Tells UN, 8 March 2017. http://www.nation.co.ke/news/-Dadaab-Uhuru-Kenyatta-UN-Antonio-Guterres/1056-3841890-2qvff6z/index.html. In 1884, the British declared that the Ogaden region belonged to Ethiopia, but Kenya refused to recognize this decision. ), $4,700 (2021 est. At the same time Kenyan Somalis complained about being overrun by the Rer [reer, Somali for clan or group] Somalia.Footnote37, In the cities outside of the northeastern region, the situation for the Somali population likewise changed from the 1990s onwards. In Nakuru, for instance, there were only about 500 Somalis in 1995, mostly members of long-urbanized families. 88. Ambiguous citizenship, as a concept, not only hints at the changing politics of the Kenyan state concerning its Somali citizens and the manifold ways in which Kenyan Somalis react to it, but it also takes into consideration the various roles Kenyan Somalis play in society. McIntosh, Autochthony and Family, 253. 67. )-$5.258 billion (2019 est. The government was unable to respond adequately to the attacks. Kenya is a source of emigrants and a host country for refugees. Secondly, there are urbanized Somalis whose ancestors settled in the colonial towns. Somalis in Kenya - Wikipedia )-0.25% (2020 est. Kenya has experienced dramatic population growth since the mid-20th century as a result of its high birth rate and its declining mortality rate. 77. This country has a population size of a little over 102.4 million, making it the second most populated country in Africa. These Highlands are unique in that their elevation does not gradually increase, but rather shoots straight up immediately from the flat land below. Kenyan Somalis seem to be ambiguous in both of them. This term can be seen as a derivation from a Somali greeting (Carrier, Little Mogadishu, 81), but also as originating from the english term warrior in contiuation with colonial representations (Abdi, Accidental Citizens, 27). )from petroleum and other liquids: 16.459 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2019 est. HRW, Death and Disappearances, 1213. )investment in inventories: -1% (2017 est. Why the results of Somali elections are crucial for the region - Aljazeera Shocking Sexual Violence Against Women in Ogaden Even though the High Court nullified parts of the bill, especially those concerned with the freedom of press and a clause limiting the number of refugees in the country to 150,000, most of its sections remain in place.Footnote77 This last step taken by the government indicates that security measures targeting Kenyan Somalis are part of a wider political landscape, encompassing not only the global war on terror,Footnote78 but also changing political structures within Kenya. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 19. These developments, however, are overshadowed by the securitization discourse in the Kenyan public sphere. 10.9% vs 4.9% 36.62% lower obesity rate among adults? Interview with Mzee Jamal, November 2010. Interview with Abdullahi, Mombasa, August 2011. 44. )crude oil estimated reserves: 0 barrels (2021 est. Otherwise the background can have a very big impact on somebodys life.Footnote95. My thanks go to James Carrier, David OKane, John Eidson and Keren Weitzberg for their fruitful comments and to Fatma A. Hassan for her help during fieldwork in Kenya. Unlike Abdullahi, who always insisted on remaining in Kenya, both of his brothers now live in Europe. 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. It was terrible, I became crazy. While she described the first and the third group as being closed, she depicted Kenyan Somalis as open. His family did not know that Abdullahi lived a very different life, going to clubs and only very rarely to the mosque. 3099067 Kenyan Somalis played an increasing (yet still small) role in political administration, as they were seen as neutral, as not connected to one of the influential ethnic groups. Gedo - Wikipedia We are one Kenya: Representations of the Nation, Leadership, and de-Ethnicized Identity on Reality TV, The Isaq Somali Diaspora and Poll-Tax Agitation in Kenya, 193641, The Unaccountable Census: Colonial Enumeration and Its Implications for the Somali People of Kenya, A New Model Village. )imports of goods and services: -25.5% (2017 est. The practices around the issuance of identity papers, the discrimination through vetting processes, as well as the forgery of papers, led to hopes that the introduction of biometric databases could make the registration and recognition process more transparent. Aminas story makes visible the relevance of family ties linking Somalia and Kenya. )crude oil and lease condensate imports: 0 bbl/day (2018 est. 11 Mainly . Visit the Definitions and Notes page to view a description of each topic. Nevertheless, Kenyas relative stability since its independence in 1963 has attracted hundreds of thousands of refugees escaping violent conflicts in neighboring countries; Kenya was sheltering nearly 280,000 Somali refugees as of 2022. ), on food: 52.9% of household expenditures (2018 est. This notion laid the basis for rendering all Kenyan Somalis as non-native Africans after independence.Footnote81 In the late 1990s and early 2000s Somali Members of Parliament spoke about a policy of apartheid and of biological nationalism.Footnote82 The only other group having such an in-between status are Nubians,Footnote83 who have to go through a similar vetting process when applying for national identification documents, which includes not only the presentation of numerous documents (such as parents birth certificates), but also the recognition by a chief to indeed belong to the local community.Footnote84, The racial component also plays out in the daily life of Kenyan Somalis. East African Countries - WorldAtlas ), 20.3 years (2014 est. . ), degree of risk: very high (2023)food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fevervectorborne diseases: malaria, dengue fever, and Rift Valley feverwater contact diseases: schistosomiasisanimal contact diseases: rabies, total: 1.68 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est. )from coal and metallurgical coke: 1.25 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2019 est. Kenyan Somalis, however, likewise reinforce notions of being different when calling their neighbours Africans.Footnote86 This can be read as a colonial legacy, the struggle of urbanized Somalis to be treated like Asians, but it can also be interpreted as a racial marker.Footnote87, Lonsdale noted that the slogan for national unity under Kibaki, Kenya: A Working Nation, also divided the population: Since some work is thought to be morally superior to others some Kenyans are more Kenyan than others.Footnote88 According to him the definition of Kenyanness is linked to idioms of connection to land evolving from the long-standing competition between farming and herding, between working and controling the land. 29.6% vs 36.1% 2.22x higher real GDP growth rate? I argue that many Kenyan Somalis are ready to take this possibility up, if they have the chance to do so. See Registration of Persons Act (Laws of Kenya), Revised Edition 2015, paragraphs 6, 9 and 14. According to Human Rights . In contrast to the above-mentioned groups, however, their ambiguousness has a more severe impact. Many are in refugee camps in Kenya and Yemen, from where they recount stories of horrific abuse. ), household consumption: 79.5% (2017 est. The areas with altitudes between 1,400 and 1,600 metres are characterised as semi-arid; receiving as much as 500-600 mm of rainfall annually. The widespread use of rape in Ogaden has . About 95% of them are Muslim. )government consumption: 14.3% (2017 est. When looking at those other groups Asians, Whites, Nubians or Arabs two main dimensions along which Kenyanness is constructed come into focus: a racial dimension and a cultural dimension. Candidates aimed at maximizing the numbers of their own group, either by registering their voters in their area, or by driving others out.Footnote59 Even though the territorialization of ethnicity already started in colonial times, it was strengthened with re-introducing the multi-party system in 1992, and further intensified with devolution.Footnote60 The 47 county governments furthermore control about 30% of national revenue, divided between them in part according to population size, deepening discussions about the census figures of 2009.Footnote61. )consumption: 821,000 metric tons (2020 est. Citizenship does, however, not only mean a formal affiliation to the state. 3. After a series of attacks on Kenyan soil carried out by the militant Somalian movement al-Shabaab, its Kenyan affiliate al-Hijra or actors claiming proximity to these groups, the Kenyan security apparatus reacted with heavy-handed measures, especially targeting ethnic Somalis living in Kenya.Footnote66 Kenyas Operation Linda Nchi (Protect the country) in October 2011, intended to push back al-Shabaab fighters from southern Somalia,Footnote67 was followed by a series of retaliatory attacks by al-Shabaab, often carried out in areas inhabited by ethnic Somalis. The Ogaden is the historical name for much of the current SNRS. )1.2% of GDP (2020)1.2% of GDP (2019)1.3% of GDP (2018)1.4% of GDP (2017), approximately 24,000 personnel (20,000 Army; 1,500 Navy; 2,500 Air Force) (2022), the KDF's inventory traditionally carried mostly older or second-hand Western weapons systems, particularly from France, the UK, and the US; however, since the 2000s it has sought to modernize and diversify its imports, and suppliers have included more than a dozen countries including China, Italy, and the US (2022), no conscription; 18-26 years of age for male and female voluntary service (under 18 with parental consent; upper limit 30 years of age for specialists, tradesmen, or women with a diploma; 39 years of age for chaplains/imams); 9-year service obligation (7 years for Kenyan Navy) and subsequent 3-year re-enlistments; applicants must be Kenyan citizens (2022), 260 Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO); 3,650 Somalia (ATMIS) (2022)note: in November 2022, Kenya sent approximately 1,000 troops to the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as part of a newly formed East Africa Community Regional Force (EACRF) to assist the DRC military against the rebel group M23; the force is led by Kenya, the KDF is considered to be an experienced, effective, and professional force; it has conducted operations in neighboring Somalia since 2011 and taken part in numerous regional peacekeeping and security missions; it is a leading member of the Africa Standby Force; the KDF trains regularly, participates in multinational exercises, and has ties to a variety of foreign militaries, including those of France, the UK, and the US; its chief security concerns and missions include protecting the countrys sovereignty and territory, regional disputes, the threat posed by the al-Shabaab terrorist group based in neighboring Somalia, maritime crime and piracy, and assisting civil authorities in responding to emergency, disaster, or political unrest as requestedthe Army has 5 combat brigades, including 3 infantry, an armored, and an artillery brigade; it also has a helicopter-equipped air cavalry battalion and a special operations regiment comprised of airborne, special forces, and ranger battalions; the Navy has several offshore patrol vessels, large coastal patrol boats, and missile-armed craft; the Air Force has a small inventory of older US-origin fighter aircraft, as well as some transport aircraft and combat helicopters Kenyan military forces intervened in Somalia in October 2011 to combat the al Qaida-affiliated al-Shabaab terrorist group, which had conducted numerous cross-border attacks into Kenya; in November 2011, the UN and the African Union invited Kenya to incorporate its forces into the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM); Kenyan forces were formally integrated into AMISOM in February 2012; they consist of approximately 3,600 troops and are responsible for AMISOMs Sector 2 comprising Lower and Middle Jubba (see Appendix T for additional details on al-Shabaab; note - as of May 2022, AMISOM was renamed the AU Transition Mission in Somalia or ATMIS)the Kenya Military Forces were created following independence in 1963; the current KDF was established and its composition laid out in the 2010 constitution; it is governed by the Kenya Defense Forces Act of 2012; the Army traces its origins back to the Kings African Rifles (KAR), a British colonial regiment raised from Britain's East Africa possessions from 1902 until independence in the 1960s; the KAR conducted both military and internal security functions within the colonial territories, and served outside the territories during the World Wars (2023), the International Maritime Bureau reported no piracy attacks in the territorial and offshore waters of Kenya in 2022; although the opportunity for incidents has reduced, the Somali pirates continue to possess the capability and capacity to carry out incidents; in the past, vessels have also been targeted off Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mozambique, as well as in the Indian ocean, and off the west and south coasts of India and west Maldives; generally, Somali pirates tend to be well armed with automatic weapons, RPGs and sometimes use skiffs launched from mother vessels, which may be hijacked fishing vessels or dhows; the Maritime Administration of the US Department of Transportation has issued a Maritime Advisory (2023-003 - Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, Bab al Mandeb Strait, Red Sea, and Somali Basin-Threats to Commercial Vessels) effective 23 February 2023, which states in part that "Regional conflict, military activity, and political tensions pose threats to commercial vessels operating in the above listed geographic areas" that shipping in territorial and offshore waters in the Indian Ocean remain at risk for piracy and armed robbery against ships, al-Shabaab; Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)/Qods Forcenote: details about the history, aims, leadership, organization, areas of operation, tactics, targets, weapons, size, and sources of support of the group(s) appear(s) in Appendix-T, Kenya-Ethiopia: their border was demarcated in the 1950s and approved in 1970; in 2012, Kenya and Ethiopia agreed to redemarcate their boundary following disputes over beacons and cross-border crime, Kenya-Somalia: Kenya works hard to prevent the clan and militia fighting in Somalia from spreading across the border, which has long been open to nomadic pastoralists; in 2021, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gave Somalia control over a disputed ocean area where the seabeds are believed to hold vasts oil and gas deposits; the ICJ ruling gave Somalia the rights to several offshore oil exploration blocks previously claimed by Kenya; Kenya did not recognize the courts decision, Kenya-South Sudan: two thirds of the boundary that separates Kenya and South Sudan's sovereignty known as the Ilemi Triangle has been unclear since British colonial times; Kenya has administered the area since colonial times; officials from Kenya and South Sudan signed a memorandum of understanding on boundary delimitation and demarcation and agreed to set up a joint committee; as of July 2019, the demarcation process was to begin in 90 days, but was delayed due to a lack of funding, Kenya-Sudan: Kenya served as an important mediator in brokering Sudan's north-south separation in February 2005, Kenya-Tanzania: Kenya and Tanzania were conducting a joint reaffirmation process in November 2021 to ensure the border was visibly marked with pillars, Kenya-Uganda: Kenya and Uganda began a joint demarcation of the boundary in 2021, refugees (country of origin): 21,620 (Ethiopia), 8,159 (Burundi), 5,540 (Sudan) (2022); 281,319 (Somalia), 157,402 (South Sudan), 72,192 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (2023)IDPs: 190,000 (election-related violence, intercommunal violence, resource conflicts, al-Shabaab attacks in 2017 and 2018) (2021)stateless persons: 16,779 (2022); note - the stateless population consists of Nubians, Kenyan Somalis, and coastal Arabs; the Nubians are descendants of Sudanese soldiers recruited by the British to fight for them in East Africa more than a century ago; Nubians did not receive Kenyan citizenship when the country became independent in 1963; only recently have Nubians become a formally recognized tribe and had less trouble obtaining national IDs; Galjeel and other Somalis who have lived in Kenya for decades are included with more recent Somali refugees and denied ID cards, a transit country for a variety of illicit drugs, including heroin and cocaine; transit location for precursor chemicals used to produce methamphetamine and other drugs; transshipment country for heroin from Southwest Asia destined for international markets, mainly Europe, and cocaine transits shipped through Ethiopia from South America; cultivates cannabis and miraa (khat) for both local use and export, total population growth rate v. urban population growth rate, 2000-2030, Children under the age of 5 years underweight, International law organization participation, Gini Index coefficient - distribution of family income, Household income or consumption by percentage share, Civil aircraft registration country code prefix, Military and security service personnel strengths, Military equipment inventories and acquisitions, Refugees and internally displaced persons, Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI).
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