What caused Kenya's first civil war

By Boniface Ongeri and Adow Jubat

Forty six years ago, Omar Shuriye Hassan said the only good thing coming out of Somalia is sun. Shuriye was one of the people vehemently opposed to North Eastern Province’s bid to become part of Somalia.

Shuriye was the Sultan (King) of the Abdalla sub clan of the larger Ogaden. He had called a baraza in Ijara in 1964 and was taken to task over his refusal to join others in the province agitating for a breakaway.

Bille Mohammed, 74, said Shuriye had predicted Somalia would one day fall because of civil strife.

GSU officers on guard with their rifles and sten guns in the North Eastern region in 1964. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

"He urged the community to remain in Kenya so that when Somalia collapsed they would not be left desperate," Bille recalls.

He was killed soon after in his palace in Ijara, which was then the headquarters for those opposing the secession, was captured by members of Abduwak sub clan.

His bodyguard and two people who had come to rescue him were also killed. He was shot in the chest after a fierce battle with the killers. When he was killed, one of his bodyguards, Corporal Ahmed Korio Nur, ran 55 miles from Ijara to Lamu to report the matter. After Shuriye’s death, those in his Abdalla clan opposed to the agitation to join Somalia fled.

It was Maalim Muhamed Stanbul Abdi Ibrahim of Abduwak’s, Sultan of Sub clan, idea to break away.

But Shuraya formed a militia and joined the Government in fighting those proposing secession. After Shuriye was killed, it marked the end of Sultanship.

Due to his opposition to the secessionist ideas, the Abdalla had a good relationship with the colonial government.

In 1962, a referendum was held to determine the fate of the province. Pro-seccessionists won by a landslide, but the colonial government reversed the results, setting the wheels of Shifta war, that rocked North Eastern province, in motion.