Activist blames Shifta war

Kenya: A human rights activist and secretary to the ad-hoc committee on the Isiolo Meru boundary dispute introduces a new dimension to the controversy.

Yussuf Huka Jillo claims the boundary between the Meru and Isiolo has been erroneously marked because no steps have been taken to correct historical grievances from 1924, which allegedly placed large parts of Isiolo in Meru.

Jillo further claims the secessionist Shifta war prevented the people of the then Isiolo District from participating in the boundary discussions during the first District Boundary Commission of 1962.

He claims that Meru has been an integral part of the last three governments, and the current one, and uses its political advantage to annex parts of Isiolo.

"The rule of social and natural justice demands that where people have occupied a place for a decade and directly extract their livelihood from the environment, it is inhuman and against natural law to displace them, irrespective of their standing in society," says Jillo.