The question for Kenyan Somalis is not, therefore, if they belong to Kenya, but how. On the one hand Kenyan Somalis are in a particularly vulnerable position as they are under threat of arrest and deportation, on the other hand they are perceived as overwhelming in numbers and as more dangerous to the status quo due to their greater visibility in the economic and political sphere. This was the time when economic and political developments in Somalia had begun to look more promising than before.Footnote107 Just a short while before she had told me that there were three groups of Somalis in Nakuru: those from Somalia, those from Kenya, and returnees. Trade centers such as Mombasa have existed along the Kenyan and Tanzanian coastlines, known as the Land of Zanj, since at least the 2nd century. Meanwhile, the situation in neighbouring Somalia worsened, starting with the Ogaden war (19771978). 51. Kenya was, after Somalia, the second largest recipient of US-American anti-terrorism funds in Sub-Saharan Africa between 2013 and 2015. http://securityassistance.org/data/country/military/country/2011/2018/is_all/Africa [accessed 14 March 2017]. "Ambiguous citizens": Kenyan Somalis and the question of belonging Somalis in Kenya - Wikipedia )-0.25% (2020 est. . It is Kenya that does not want Somalis in Kenya.Footnote10, Even in colonial times, the Somali population of British East Africa was treated differently from other inhabitants. )female: 2.7% (2020 est. note: data are in current year dollars$17.717 billion (2020 est.) This may appear to be a gloomy conclusion, but there are some developments that might render the picture in brighter light. The term Somali is used as an umbrella term, applied to a very heterogeneous population. Carrier and Kochore, Navigating Ethnicity, 144. 13. 52. The possibilities the new Constitution concedes are slowly finding their ways into laws and thereafter into practice. The position of Kenyan Somalis is, to speak in Yiftachel terms, situated in gray spaces, between the whiteness of legality or approval, and the blackness of eviction or destruction. In this paper, I show that the position of Somalis as ambiguous citizens is not new, but goes back at least to the independence era, if not earlier. Political competition linked to the re-introduction of multi-party politics as well as tensions between local communities and refugees over environmental degradation, jobs, and access to servicesFootnote34 led to several violent conflicts. Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC). Many Kenyan Somalis are tired of these improvised solutions and want to be treated as any other Kenyan.Footnote47 Furthermore, as the ID is associated with citizenship, lack of ID means that, in the eyes of the majority, those without do not belong.Footnote48. Since her parents separated, there has been almost no contact between the father and his four daughters. In 2013, presidential elections coincided with the new county-level elections, intensifying this feature of Kenya politics. Abdullahi, who is in his mid-40s, sees himself first and foremost as Kenyan. The two countries went to war in 1888, but the conflict was ended by the . Nobody questions the connection of Kenyan Somalis to the soil of the northeastern region, where most of them live: what is disputed is the question of whether or not this makes them Kenyan. )expenditures: $24.271 billion (2019 est. 24. 16. Even the existence of Somali heroes, as seen in the Westgate Mall AttackFootnote100 or initiatives against that image (#KenyaImNotATerrorist)Footnote101 do not seem to change this picture. This paper deals with the first two categories, Kenyan Somalis who have a well-founded claim to Kenyan citizenship. Those elected in 2013 included a considerable number of Kenyan Somalis, some assuming important positions in parliament and government. P. Leftie and J. Otieno, How North Eastern Figures Went Wrong, Daily Nation, 1 September 2010. http://www.nation.co.ke/news/How-North-Eastern-figures-went-wrong-/1056-1001530-1d3tow/index.html. Nairobi Development and the Somali Question in Kenya, c. 191517. ), 17.709 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2019 est. North Eastern Province (Kenya) - Wikipedia By closing this message, you are consenting to our use of cookies. Both the increased visibility of Somali politicians in Kenya, even in areas with a non-Somali majority population, and the growth of the Kenyan Somali population, according to the 2009 census, have intensified anxieties about Somalis taking over Kenya. The Ogaden War 1977-78 In Kenya, Mogadishu merely supported local armed groups to further its irredentist ambitions, but in Ethiopia, it launched a full-scale war. These clashes revived the discussion over what it means to be Kenyan, yet who is imagined as belonging to the nation, and to what degree, remains a situational matter. The Nubians of Kibera Revisited: Detribalized Natives, Slum Dwellers, Middle Class? )from petroleum and other liquids: 16.459 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2019 est. Visit the Definitions and Notes page to view a description of each topic. Collective punishment, however, persisted in the North Eastern Province. This means: at an individual level, an Ogaden from there might feel the urge or need or might be compelled . He is working as a project manager in an IT company, even though had never gone to university due to financial reasons. Lochery, Rendering Difference Visible, 624; Anderson, Remembering Wagalla, 662. Firstly, politicians demanded the closure of the refugee camps near the Somali border.Footnote72 Developments indicate that, this time, the Kenyan government seriously intends to shut down the refugee camp complex of Dadaab, despite a High Court ruling denouncing the planned closure as unconstitutional.Footnote73 Secondly, there were crackdowns on Somalian refugees living outside the camps. The main part of the data, consisting of open and structured interviews (such as social network interviews) as well as participant observation, was collected in several periods of extended field research since 2010 mainly in urban Somali neighbourhoods, Somali shopping centres, and Islamic institutions. 79. 4. If you are coming from a very different background, its difficult to match the same level. ), lowest 10%: 1.8%highest 10%: 37.8% (2005), 3.42% of GDP (2021 est. The first and biggest are the inhabitants of the northeastern region of Kenya, bordering Somalia and Ethiopia. Formula Narratives and the Making of Social Stratification and Inequality, The Ogaden and the Fragility of Somali Segmentary Nationalism, Killing a Mosquito with a Hammer: Al-Shabaab Violence and State Security Responses in Kenya, Between a Protracted and a Crisis Situation: Policy Responses to Somali Refugees in Kenya, Rendering Difference Visible: The Kenyan State and its Somali Citizens, Soil, Work, Civilisation, and Citizenship in Kenya, Autochthony and Family: The Politics of Kinship in White Kenyan Bids to Belong. (English)The World Factbook, Chanzo cha Lazima Kuhusu Habari ya Msingi. According to Human Rights Watch in 2008, the Ogaden is the largest Darod clan in Ethiopia's Somali Region, and may account for 40 to 50 percent of the Somali population in Ethiopia. Interviews with Amina, 2010, and with Ijaabo, Mombasa, August 2016. Some perceive Somalis as doing better than other Muslims in Kenya, economically and politically.Footnote41. In the multi-ethnic state of Kenya, there are other groups as well who are ambiguous citizens including Asians, Whites, Nubians and Arabs for whom two main dimensions along which Kenyanness is constructed come into the foreground: a racial dimension and a cultural dimension. New Modes in the Struggle Over Citizenship and Belonging in Africa and Europe, The Fourth Point: An Examination of the Influence of Kenyan Somalis in Somalia, Decentralisation in Kenya: The Governance of Governors, Planning, Property and Plots At the Gateway to Kenyas New Frontier, Somalia Rising: Things are Starting to Change for the Worlds Longest Failed State, The Checkered History of the Somali in Kenya. 17. Meeting Kenyan Somalis from the northeastern part of the country, where Somali is spoken more frequently, can lead to a feeling of double exclusion: to be neither accepted as Somali nor to be able to claim belonging to any other Kenyan ethnic group. Ethiopia's Ogaden refugees recount horrors of conflict | Reuters ), total petroleum production: 0 bbl/day (2021 est. 86. 1. 85. Anderson, Remembering Wagalla, 662663. )$25.706 billion (2018 est. Lind et al., Killing a Mosquito, 15. With his brothers, he plans to start an agricultural business. Wiesmann, Kiteme and Mwangi, Socio-Economic Atlas, 122128. Weitzberg, The Unaccountable Census.. ), electrification - total population: 85% (2019)electrification - urban areas: 99% (2019)electrification - rural areas: 79% (2019), installed generating capacity: 3.304 million kW (2020 est. Accessed March 7, 2018. http://www.afrobarometer.org. You are not required to obtain permission to reuse this article in part or whole. 10. Kenya has experienced dramatic population growth since the mid-20th century as a result of its high birth rate and its declining mortality rate. Although 80% of Kenya is Christian, its Muslim populationwhich accounts for about 9-10% of the populationis largely concentrated on its eastern coast as well as on the border with Somalia. The Ogaden contains oil and gas fields, but development has been hampered by instability in the region. ), total: 674,191 (2020 est. 91. ), total: 20 yearsmale: 19.9 yearsfemale: 20.1 years (2020 est. Most Samaal clans are widely distributed pastoralists, although a . ), definition: age 15 and over can read and writetotal population: 81.5%male: 85%female: 78.2% (2018), total: 13.8%male: 12.8%female: 14.9% (2021 est. In Ogaden, there is no protection from rape and sexual assault of women and girls. 60. 76. Terrorist Attacks in Kenya Reveal Domestic Radicalization ), municipal: 500 million cubic meters (2020 est. Kenyan Somalis played an increasing (yet still small) role in political administration, as they were seen as neutral, as not connected to one of the influential ethnic groups. )imports: 277 million kWh (2019 est. See for instance the 2016 exhibition Who I Am, Who We Are in Nairobi and an article in the Daily Nation discussing this exhibition. The population is predominantly Somali, and there have been attempts to incorporate the area into a Greater Somalia. For Somalians, Kenyan Somalis are Somali sijui, Somali who do not know (neither Somali language nor culture), brothers and sisters, but not real Somalis. ), improved: urban: 91.3% of populationrural: 63.3% of populationtotal: 71.2% of populationunimproved: urban: 8.7% of populationrural: 36.7% of populationtotal: 28.8% of population (2020 est. These developments, however, are overshadowed by the securitization discourse in the Kenyan public sphere. 58.17million more inhabitants? Elliott, Planning, Property and Plots, 512. Carrier and Kochore, Navigating Ethnicity, 135. )5.01% (2019 est.
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