North Eastern province still struggling forty two years after end of war

By Boniface Ongeri

In the early 1960s, the Northern Frontier Districts comprising the now Wajir, Garissa, Mandera, Marsabit, Isiolo and Moyale Counties wanted to secede and join the greater Somalia.

The British colonial government, which wanted to expand its authority over Northern Kenya, declined to grant the request sparking the infamous shifta war. The war started in 1963 and was brought to a brutal halt in 1968.

It was one of the bloodiest but failed liberation struggles that stretched from colonial period through independence and the aftermath still reverberates over 40 years on. By conventional measures, that war is over, but little has changed.

The country’s new Constitution has heralded a fresh beginning. No wonder when the new Constitution was passed, residents declared the momentous occasion as the real independence. Even the security forces which allegedly carried out executions and razing villages down has cut their murderous glee.

The aftermath of the war left many scars that have stunted development. The province is yet to shrug off the tag Nothing Except Problems denoting NEP.

Despite its association with shifta gangs, in 2007 –– when the country was burning after a bungled election –– the region was peaceful.

Yet this rarely raises a blip in national and international radars just like its gripping story is missing in the history books leading to one Farson saying: There is one half of Kenya about which the other half knows nothing and seems to care even less.

This is the Northern Frontier Districts now northern Kenya. In this series, The Standard brings you the gripping story of the shifta war. We try to answer the long standing question; did those agitating to break away from Kenya and join Somalia have misplaced ideas or were their concerns genuine?