Mandera, Kenya: Leaders from warring clans in Northern Kenya have failed to strike a peace deal, even after President Uhuru Kenyatta directed that a road map for peace be developed.

There have been deadly clashes between the Garre and Degodia clans in Mandera County, sparked by boundary rows and political representation.

The week-long talks held two weeks ago collapsed after the representatives of the Garre turned down several proposals, including that of disarming what the Degodia clan claimed to be a 2,400-strong militia from Kenya and Ethiopia.

The Garre have since refuted claims that there was such a militia whose composition, the Degodia clan claims, got military training from the Somalia programme sponsored by Igad (Intergovernmental Authority on Development).

“There is a highly trained militia in Mandera, which has been used to purge opposing clans from the county,” said Mohamed Abdi, a politician from Rhamu in Mandera North.

Through the Igad programme, thousands of young men had been recruited to assist in the fight against Al Shabaab in Somalia. It is feared that the trained men, many of them from Mandera County, returned from Somalia and Ethiopia, and are being used as community militia.

Hostility

Police officers confirmed the presence of trained militia in one of the latest conflicts in Gunana Village, at the border of Mandera and Wajir counties, where dozens were killed a month ago.

Governors, senators, MPs and community elders from the two communities have been holding meetings to draft an agreement that will end the hostility. However, an intermediate deal that was never signed, dubbed Red Court Accord Number 2, indicates that suspicions between the two clans are still rife.

The Degodia claim the meeting failed because extremists from the other side hijacked the peace talks, even though the leadership at the table reached a tentative deal. Debate on the contentious political representation of Mandera North Constituency, for instance, was shelved for a later date, yet it was among the top issues on the mediation agenda.

“The parties could not agree on the most sensitive issues because of exclusionist extremism within the Garre council of elders, most of whom are not even of the Garre clan,” says Issak Mohamed, a political scientist from the University of Nairobi, and a member of the Garre clan.

It was expected that this meeting would provide a permanent peace deal for the inter-clan disputes that date as far back as 1920. Records from the colonial government show that a British administrator had reported to Nairobi that the clans were unlikely to ever live as friends.

 

“...The best chance of maintaining peace between them is to divide the district into two parts and give each tribe its grazing area,” said the then district commissioner. A census carried out then in Mandera District showed that the Garre clan had 10,000 households while the Degodia had 7,500. There was relative peace after the grazing lands were divided between the two clans.

Already, there are fears that the Garre, who form the majority of the population in Mandera County, are seeking to break away and form a ‘Garre Country’ that extends to part of Somalia, Ethiopia and neighbouring counties of Wajir and Moyale, at least according to a map on Garreonline.com – a website that is under investigation.

Detectives are investigating the claims, and Inspector General David Kimaiyo is seeking the arrest of those behind the website. “We understand that those running the website are not within Kenya, and we have requested Interpol and our cyber crime investigation unit to help us pin them down,” Kimaiyo said. “The Government works hard to restore harmony among communities, but this website is stoking hostilities.”

No one has been arrested in relation to the website and its expansionist ideas, but the Criminal Investigation Department says the conflicts have been politically instigated.

It had been hoped that the two clans, whose conflicts have caused more than 100 deaths this year alone, would finally strike an accord that would lead to lasting peace in Mandera.

But now, the leaders and community are running out of options, even after a date with a furious President Uhuru, who had ordered the clans to clean up their act.

“We hoped to reach an agreement on the real causes of the conflict, but these efforts have been frustrated by one party,” a participant in the negotiations told the Standard.

During a meeting on June 24, the President had warned the leaders of stern action, including prosecution if they were found to be fuelling the inter-clan tensions.

The Head of State also directed the surrender and mop up of illegal firearms, and warned that his Government would mount a massive security operation if the violence did not stop.

Only weeks ago, the region experienced one of the worst inter-clan conflicts along the common border between Mandera and Wajir, resulting in the loss of at least 20 lives.

There have been claims of voter importation into the constituency during the elections, a proposition that is supported by the discrepancy between the population and the number of registered voters.

But Adan Mohammed Nooru, the MP for Mandera North, says the claims made by the Degodia are false.

“We have a democratic process where representation is through popular vote,” Nooru says.

Abdikadir Mohammed, now President Kenyatta’s advisor, was the sole MP from the Degodia clan in Mandera for a single term after the 2007 elections.

Mandera County has six constituencies, but the Garre clan that makes up slightly more than half of the population controls seven of the nine elective positions.

Matters between the two clans worsened days before the March 4, 2013, elections when Haji Jele - an influential elder from the Degodia clan - was run over and killed by a vehicle belonging to a Garre politician, in Rhamu Town within Mandera. The Degodia read mischief in the killing, terming it a murder of their prominent elder, leading to deadly clashes on the eve of the polls.

Resettlement

Retaliatory attacks have since been waged by both clans.

It was a double loss for the Degodia, after failing to retain the parliamentary representation previously held by Abdikadir, who chose not to vie.

The leaders were expected to present their deal to the community, with the hope that it would help ease the hostilities.The tentative agreement included the resettlement of internally displaced persons from both sides.

However, there are concerns that Garre IDPs from Wajir have been relocated to Rhamu in breach of a government order. It is feared that their presence in that area will escalate inter-clan tension.

Already, there have been renewed clashed in Malkhameri area, within Banisa Constituency, where tens of livestock have been stolen. At least two people were killed on Friday.

Tensions had been high during the month of Ramadhan, with fears that the deadly clashes reported in July would restart.