Shifta War

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Shifta War
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date=1963 - 1967
place=North Eastern Province, Kenya
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territory=
result=Kenyan victory
combatant1=flagicon|KenyaKenya
combatant2=Northern Frontier District Liberation Movement
flagicon|Somalia Somalia
combatant3=
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commander2=
commander3=
strength1=
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casualties1=
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notes=The Shifta War (1963–1967) was a secessionist conflict in which ethnic Somalis in the Northern Frontier District (NFD) of Kenya (a region that is and has historically been almost exclusively inhabited by ethnic SomalisAfrica Watch Committee, "Kenya: Taking Liberties", (Yale University Press: 1991), p.269] Women's Rights Project, "The Human Rights Watch Global Report on Women's Human Rights", (Yale University Press: 1995), p.121] Francis Vallat, "First report on succession of states in respect of treaties: International Law Commission twenty-sixth session 6 May-26 July 1974", (United Nations: 1974), p.20] ) attempted to join with their fellow Somalis in a Greater Somalia. The Kenyan government named the conflict "shifta", after the Somali word for "bandit", as part of a propaganda effort. The Kenyan counter-insurgency General Service Units forced civilians into protected villages as well as killing a large number of livestock kept by the pastoralist Somalis. The war ended in 1968 when Abdirashid Ali Shermarke, President of the Somali Republic, signed a ceasefire with Kenya. However, the violence in Kenya deteriorated into disorganized banditry, with occasional episodes of secessionist agitation, for the next several decades. The war and violent clampdowns by the Kenyan government caused large-scale disruption to the way of life in the district, resulting in a slight shift from pastoralist and transhumant lifestyles to sedentary, urban lifestyles.

Background

Throughout much of the 20th century, the Northern Frontier District (NFD) used to be a part of British East Africa. From 1926 to 1934, the NFD, comprising the current North Eastern Province and the districts of Marsabit, Moyale and Isiolo, [http://www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=7837 "Fading
] by Boniface Ongeri and Victor Obure, "East African Standard", 9 December 2004] was closed by British colonial authorities. Movement in and out of the district was possible only through the use of "passes". [Nene Mburu, PDFlink| [http://www.njas.helsinki.fi/pdf-files/vol8num2/mburu.pdf "Contemporary Banditry in the Horn of Africa: Causes, History and Political Implications"] |118 KiB in "Nordic Journal of African Studies" 8(2): 89-107 (1999), p. 99] Despite these restrictions, pastoralism was well-suited to the arid conditions and the non-Somali residents -- who represented a tiny fraction of the region's population -- were relatively prosperous. Anthropologist John Baxter noted in 1953 that:

the Boran and the Sakuye were well-nourished and well-clothed and, though a pastoral life is always physically demanding, people led dignified and satisfying life... They had clearly been prospering for some years. In 1940, the District Commissioner commented in his Handing Over Report: "The Ewaso Boran have degenerated through wealth and soft living into an idle and cowardly set"... [Paul T.W. Baxter, 1993, "The 'New' East African Pastoralist: An Overview" in John Markakis (ed.), "Conflict and the Decline of Pastoralism in the Horn of Africa", London:MacMillan, pp. 145-146, quoted in Alex de Waal, 1997, "Famine Crimes: Politics & the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa", African Issues series, African Rights & the International African Institute, ISBN 0-253-21158-1, p. 39]

On June 26, 1960, four days before granting British Somaliland independence, the British government declared that all Somali areas should be unified in one administrative region. However, after the dissolution of the former British colonies in East Africa, Britain granted administration of the Northern Frontier District to Kenyan nationalists despite a) an informal plebiscite demonstrating the overwhelming desire of the region's population to join the newly-formed Somali Republic, [David D. Laitin, "Politics, Language, and Thought: The Somali Experience", (University Of Chicago Press: 1977), p.75] and b) the fact that the NFD was and still is almost exclusively inhabited by ethnic Somalis. [Africa Watch Committee, "Kenya: Taking Liberties", (Yale University Press: 1991), p.269] [Women's Rights Project, "The Human Rights Watch Global Report on Women's Human Rights", (Yale University Press: 1995), p.121] [Francis Vallat, "First report on succession of states in respect of treaties: International Law Commission twenty-sixth session 6 May-26 July 1974", (United Nations: 1974), p.20]

On the eve of Kenyan independence in August 1963, British officials belatedly realized that the new Kenyan administration were not willing to give up the historically Somali-inhabited areas they had just been granted administration of. Somali officials responded with the following statement:

It was evident that the British Government has not only deliberately misled the Somalia Government during the course of the last eighteen months, but has also deceitfully encouraged the people of North Eastern Province to believe that their right to self-determination could be granted by the British Government through peaceful and legal means. [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1984/WTL.htm "The Somali Dispute: Kenya Beware"] by Maj. Tom Wanambisi for the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, April 6, 1984 (hosted by globalsecurity.org)]

Led by the Northern Province People's Progressive Party (NPPPP), Somalis in the NFD vigorously sought union with the Somali Republic to the north. [Bruce Baker, "Escape from Domination in Africa: Political Disengagement & Its Consequences", (Africa World Press: 2003), p.83] In response, the Kenyan government enacted a number of repressive measures designed to frustrate their efforts:

Somali leaders were routinely placed in preventive detention, where they remained well into the late 1970s. The North Eastern Province was closed to general access (along with other parts of Kenya) as a "scheduled" area (ostensibly closed to all outsiders, including members of parliament, as a means of protecting the nomadic inhabitants), and news from it was very difficult to obtain. A number of reports, however, accused the Kenyans of mass slaughters of entire villages of Somali citizens and of setting up large "protected villages" -- in effect concentration camps. The government refused to acknowledge the ethnically based irredentist motives of the Somalis, making constant reference in official statements to the "shifta" (bandit) problem in the area.Rhoda E. Howard, "Human Rights in Commonwealth Africa", (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.: 1986), p.95]

Conflict

The province thus entered a period of running skirmishes between the Kenyan Army and Somali-backed Northern Frontier District Liberation Movement (NFDLM) insurgents. One immediate consequence was the signing in 1964 of a Mutual Defense Treaty between Jomo Kenyatta's administration and the government of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. The start of the Bale revolt in Ethiopia in 1963 indicated to both Kenya and Ethiopia the need for cooperation in checking Somali irredentism. [http://www.somalilandtimes.net/2003/105/10518.shtml "How Kenya Averted War With Somalia"] by John Kamau, "East African Standard", January 18, 2004 (hosted by somalilandtimes.net)] However, the treaty had little effect as neither Kenya nor Ethiopia were able to stem the cross-border flow of materiel.

At the outset of the war, the government declared a State of Emergency. This consisted of allowing security forces to detain people up to 56 days without trial, confiscating the property of communities allegedly in retaliation for acts of violence, and restricting the right to assembly and movement. A 'prohibited zone' was created along the Somali border, and the death penalty was made mandatory for unauthorized possession of firearms. "Special courts" without guarantee of due process were also created. The northeast -- declared a "special district" -- was subject to nearly unfettered government control, including the authority to detain, arrest or forcibly move individuals or groups, as well as confiscate possessions and land.de Waal 1997, p. 40] However, as part of its effort to reassure the public, the Voice of Kenya was warned not to refer to the conflict as a "border dispute", while a special government committee decided to refer to the rebels as "shiftas" in order to minimize the political nature of the war.

Over the course of the war, the new Kenyan government became increasingly concerned by the growing strength of the Somali military. At independence, Somalia had a weak army of 5000 troops that was incapable of exerting itself beyond its borders. However, in 1963, the Somali government appealed for assistance from the Soviet Union, which responded by lending it about $32 million. By 1969, 800 Somali officers had received Soviet training, while the army had expanded to over 23,000 well-equipped troops. The Kenyan fear that the insurgency might escalate into an all-out war with phalanxes of well-equipped Somali troops was coupled with a concern about the new insurgent tactic of planting land mines. In a July 29, 1966 letter, Kenyan Defence Permanent Secretary Danson Mlamba warned Information and Broadcasting PS Peter Gachathi of:

mounting casualties to the army and police... and the last incident, which we are keeping quiet about, when a police Land Rover was blown up by a mine which killed two officers and wrecked the vehicle is a very serious development.

The Kenyan government response may have been inspired by the counter-insurgency efforts taken by the British during the Mau Mau Uprising, which had been spearheaded by the Kikuyu, who now ironically dominated the Kenya African National Union-led government. Gachathi mused that they should perhaps "take a leaf from the (British) operations carried out during the emergency against the Mau Mau movement which, I am sure you will agree, were considerably effective." In 1967, Kenyan fears reached a fever pitch, and a special government committee was created to prepare for a full-scale war with Somalia. The government also adopted a policy of compulsory villagization in the war-affected area. In 1967, the populace was moved into 14 "Manyattas", villages that were guarded by troops. East Africa scholar Alex de Waal described the result as "a military assault upon the entire pastoral way of life," as enormous numbers of livestock were confiscated or killed, partly to deny their use by the guerrillas and partly to force the populace to abandon their flocks and move to a "Manyatta". Thus, made destitute, many nomads became an urban underclass, while educated Somali Kenyans fled the country. The government also removed the dynastic Sultans, who were the traditional leaders, with low-ranking government-appointed chiefs.Mburu 1999, p. 100]

In 1967, Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda mediated peace talks between Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Egal and Kenyatta. These bore fruit in October 1967, when the governments of Kenya and Somalia signed a Memorandum of Understanding that resulted in a ceasefire. The "Manyatta" strategy is seen as playing a key role in ending the insurgency, though the Somali government may have also decided that the potential benefits of a war simply was not worth the cost and risk. However, Somalia did not renounce its claim to Greater Somalia.

Effects

With Somali support for their movement for self-determination temporarily halted, many former rebels returned to the traditional activity of pastoralism.

The forced internment of the Northern Frontier District's inhabitants also resulted in an economic bifurcation of its other minority residents. Those with means diversified into trade and sedentary farming. Those without became wage laborers, while the poorest were reduced to dependence on outside relief aid. Anthropologist John Baxter returned to the village in Isiolo District that he had researched in 1953, and had this to say about the few non-Somali minority tribes that lived at the time alongside the Somali majority:

In 1982, only a few fortunate ones still maintained themselves through stock pastoralism. Some 40 percent of the Boran and Sakuye of the District had been driven to peri-urban shanty villages in the new administrative townships. There, they eked out a bare subsistence, hanging around the petrol stations for odd jobs, hawking for "miraa", making illicit alcohol, engaging in prostitution and the like. [Baxter 1993, p. 143, quoted in de Waal, p. 39]

The war thus marked the beginning of decades of violent crackdowns and repressive measures by the police in the NFD coupled with trumped-up allegations and unsubtle innuendo on the part of the Kenyan media charging the region's almost exclusively Somali inhabitants with "banditry" and other vice. [Vigdis Broch-Due, "Violence and Belonging: The Quest for Identity in Post-colonial Africa", 1 edition, (Routledge: 2005), p.174-175]

A particularly violent incident referred to as the Wagalla Massacre took place in 1984, when the Kenyan provincial commissioner ordered security forces to gather 5000 men of the Somali Degodia clan onto the airstrip at Wagalla, Wajir, open fire on them, and then attempt to hide their bodies. In the year 2000, the government admitted to having killed 380 people, though independent estimates put the toll at over 2000. [de Waal 1997, p. 41; PDFlink| [http://www.benadir-watch.com/2005%20News/0226_NFD_Wagalla_Massacre.pdf "Wagalla Massacre: Families Demand Payment"] |13.4 KiB , "The East African Standard", February 26, 2005 (hosted by benadir-watch.com); and [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/978922.stm "Kenya admits mistakes over 'massacre'"] , "BBC News", 18 October, 2000]

Not until late 2000 and the administration of Provincial Commissioner Mohammoud Saleh -- a Somali -- was there a serious drop in violent activities, partially attributable to Saleh's zero tolerance policy towards abuse by security forces. Ironically, Saleh himself was the target of the local police, having been arrested and booked several times during the wee hours of the night. Wearing plain clothes, Saleh was apparently mistaken for an ordinary inhabitant of the NFD.

References and notes