End of July Editorial

They started to stream across the border in the hundreds; and there was alarm from the Kenyan authorities. In an interview with the BBC about a month ago, a spokesman at the Kenyan Ministry of Home Affairs tried his best to mollify the reporter – but one attuned to politics in the Great Lakes Region would have cut through the perfunctory elements in his responses to see the clear and present danger of having thousands of desperate, starving Somali people on Kenyan territory.

But this East African/Horn of Africa crisis needs to be put into context. First, in 2010, forecasters warned that there would be massive food shortages stemming from the dangerously low rainfall and drought in Somalia – the worst in 20 years. Secondly, Somalia has been in a state of anarchy since the collapse of its central government in 1991. Thirdly, any failed state is, inevitably, a threat to the internal security of her neighbors – Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. To illustrate this, one only need to look at the notoriety of the Somali pirates on the Indian Ocean. Besides, the close proximity to Yemen and the Middle East can only mean the influence of al Qaeda ala its infiltration into Taliban ranks in Afghanistan.

Kenya bears the ‘misfortune’ of being the most developed East African country. But like most nations in this part of the world, it still has an inverted economy. North Eastern Kenya, the part that shares a border with Somalia is very much like the rest of the horn of Africa – poor, dry and almost ungoverned. The Somali will not go to Ethiopia, which only recently in 2001, had a drought of its own. Kenya is, indeed, the ‘promised land’ for the refugees. Refugee camps along the border have swollen to nearly half a million people; and according to reports, the Dadaab camp receives up to 1,000 exhausted, malnourished and dying Somali who have travelled hundreds of miles on foot. Many of the malnourished children will not survive the squalid conditions of the camps.

Why would anyone be concerned with the aspects in the Horn of Africa? That the Somali Situation presents a clear and present danger to the World can be seen through the lenses of the events that led to 9/11. The Super Powers brought their politics to Afghanistan; and the mutation was Usama bin Laden and al Qaeda. In Somalia, al Shabaab, a seeming cell of global terrorism, is not only prevalent but thriving. This group, in what was supposedly revenge exerted on the Ugandans for interference in Somalia, is apparently responsible for the deaths of about 80 Ugandans in the July 2010 bombs. Considering how porous the African borders are; it behooves any politician or administrator to nip this crisis in the bud. Kenya’s inimical attitude to the refugees will not help. This, in fact, could be a time for the country to show leadership. Although the US, under Bill Clinton, received a bloody nose from Somalia, the Obama administration has made the effort to lead in assuaging this humanitarian crisis.

But this arduous, albeit onerous task should be left to the hands of the African Union and the countries in that part of the world. The International Community should, indeed, provide logistical support and supplies like they did in Haiti. However, if Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Sudan do not take full charge of this crisis, then the blood will be on their hands. What do you think will happen when these young men watch their desiccation of their families? Hostility oscillates. People of color – in the Diaspora or otherwise – need to demand that the African countries take the bull by the horns. We need to demand accountability. We need to demand that the Africans man up. We know what could happen. And we should do everything we can to prevent the pending doom; inevitable as it may seem.

Dennis Matanda,
Editor