Mandera County, Since 2004, when it was a district to the present day has experienced serious setback following clashes pitting the two largest clans in the district, the Garre and Murule. The two clans have had a long history of periodic struggles over grazing land, dating back to the 1916- 20s, 80's and more recent but also have had extended periods of peace between them. Prior to the 2004 violence, no serious armed clashes had occurred between the two clans since 1983.
Read the Previous 2005 UMUL Accord here https://muruleonline.blogspot.com/2021/05/umul-accord-2021.html
The 2004 clashes began with pastoral clashes over disputed pasture at Jabibar, resulting in one death. The death triggered a revenge killing, a clear warning sign that xeer (Somalia Clan System) between the two clans was in danger of breaking down. The spiral of revenge killing culminated with Garres asaaulting Murules in several points along Elwak -Wargadud Road and the the Murules responded by killing of a prominent Garre NGO worker near EI Wak in December 2004. Then, The Garre, responded with armed attacks that ushered in a period ofwider conflict. From January to March 2005, multiple attacks were responsible for 50 deaths and 30,000 displaced persons in the district. The conflict reached it apex on March16,2005, when a Murule raided a Garre village of EI Golicha that resulted in a massacre of22 people, of whom 16 were children. The massacre triggered widespread outrage in the Kenyan media and international press, prompting direct Kenyan government response.
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The two clans were convened in peace talks which were eventually mediated by a group of eminent Muslim leaders from the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM). Under considerable national pressure, the two clans reached an UMUL accord which enshrined open access to pasture throughout the district. But aid agencies on the ground reported that ethnic cleansing at the location level continues, and IDP return to home areas, including Mandera town, has been slow. The lack of hostilities may not constitute anenduring peace. While a return to armed conflict is not viewed as inevitable, it remains adangerous possibility.
Read KENYA -SOMALIA Full Report Here : https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADT520.pdf
CONFLICT DRIVERS:
A number of underlying conflict drivers have been at play in Mandera. Chronic tensions over access to grazing land and wells have unquestionably been a rootcause of the communal violence. Land pressures in the arid region have always been high.
A combination of factors -
Increased population, the displacement of Garre and Murule from Wajir-West and Isiolo back into Mandera, an increase in poorly placed boreholes, and the misuse of locations as zones of exclusive grazing land have allcontributed to growing anxiety among and pressure on pastoralists.
Political competition over constituencies and locations have been a more direct conflict driver.
Following clan clashes in the early 1980s, in 1988 a new constituency, Mandera-Central, was carved out of Mandera-East to provide a seat in parliament for the Garres. Prior to that time, the two constituencies in Mandera were routinely held by thenumerically dominant Murule. As in Wajir, it was thought that a separate constituency in a mainly Garre zone would serve as a conflict prevention device, by eliminating politicalcompetition between the Garre and Murille. Instead, it accelerated it.
As elsewhere in theregion, MPs wielded authority to pressure the government to expand the number oflocations in their constituency as a means of rewarding clients and expanding government services - schools, boreholes, stipends to chiefs - all part ofpolitical patronage in Kenya.
But because the "base" of each MP is his clan or sub-clan, rewards of location chieftainships went exclusively to the clan of the MP. And because control of locations was used to make exclusionist claims on land within the location borders, the net result was widespread ethnic cleansing in the three constituencies of Mandera.43Conflict wasmost acute in locations where valuable, previously shared grazing area was situated.
In the Garre-Murille clashes, competition within the Garre political elite appearsto have played an especially destructive and complex role. In 2002, both the Mandera-East and Mandera-Central constituencies were won by Garre from the Qoranyo sub-clan,one of two main Garre sub-clans the other being the Tuuf). The Tuuf had previously enjoyed prominence in the political realm and both the sub-clan and its ousted MP, Aden Nur Mohamed, were unhappy with the outcome.
Some local observers contend thatAden Nur and his Tuuf supporters sought an alliance with Murille and, in an attempt to demonstrate that the Qoranyo leaders could not rule, provoked security incidents and tensions between the two clans. Adan Nur's successor, MP Billow Kero, filed a statement with the CID accusing Aden Nur of inciting violence, and Aden Nur was summoned and questioned by the police. Nur in turn accuses Kero of using Garre militia to intimidate rivals. If either or both of the charges are true, it would mirror patterns in a number ofother troubled border regions of Kenya, where MPs and their political rivals arefrequently accused of fomenting ethnic violence.
As with the Garre-Ajuraan clashes in Wajir-North, the fact that Mandera district clans can call on militia firepower from neighboring Ethiopia, where kinsmen are either in the Ethiopia military or operate as para-military forces in the border areas, exacerbates the conflict.The Garre-Murille conflict was also entangled in and driven by the Garre-Marehan conflict. The Murille of Mandera district have had a long-running relationship with the Marehan sub-clans in the border area, especially the Ali Dheere sub-clan. A series of killings since 2000, and a longer history of rivalry over trade between the Ali Dheere and the Garre, led to deteriorating relations between the two groups. When armed clashes between the Marehan and Garre broke out over El Wak, the Garre suspected Murille complicity with the Marehan, increasing mistrust between the two.
Read KENYA -SOMALIA Full Report Here : https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADT520.pdf
Prospects for Peace.
The fact that the recently-brokered peace accord was reached underconsiderable external pressure and without adequate follow-up to insure implementation is worrisome. Most of the underlying factors driving the conflict - political manipulation of ethnic grievances by politicians, abuse of locations to pursue ethnic cleansing, andever-worsening pressures on pastoral households - are still in place. On the other hand, a number of factors could work in favor of consolidating the fragile peace. The impressive growth of civic peace groups in Mandera is helping build lines of communication and their watch-dog role may reduce the space political figures have to manipulate clantensions. Business interests in Mandera-town depend on cross-border trade, which has been interrupted by fighting, and could be convinced to support peace rather than fund their clan militias. Finally, the fact that the peace accord was mediated by national Muslim leaders may create a stronger taboo against violating the peace.
