The ambiguousness of citizenship for Kenyan Somalis was complicated further in the 1990s, with the increasing number of Somalian refugees in Kenya.Footnote29 While this number officially includes only those registered as refugees, many more Somalians live outside the camps in the northeastern region as well as in Kenyan urban centres.Footnote30 From the early 1990s onwards, anti-refugee sentiments were aimed at Somalians. 101. http://kenyaimnotaterrorist.tumblr.com [accessed 21 April 2016]. 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 latter is often connected to a nomadic lifestyle, which tends to ignore national borders,Footnote89 adding to the perception of disloyality to the soil. Aminas story makes visible the relevance of family ties linking Somalia and Kenya. ), production: 0 cubic meters (2021 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. 108. 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. 79. When looking at those other groups Asians, Whites, Nubians or Arabs two main dimensions along which Kenyanness is constructed come into focus: a racial dimension and a cultural dimension. #KenyaInvestmentHub Pride of Africa . ), urban population: 29.5% of total population (2023)rate of urbanization: 4.09% annual rate of change (2020-25 est. Did you know that with a free Taylor & Francis Online account you can gain access to the following benefits? around Kismayo) are much more exposed to Al Shabaab than the others. )biomass and waste: 1.2% of total installed capacity (2020 est. Box 606 Village Market, 00621 Nairobimailing address: 8900 Nairobi Place, Washington, DC 20521-8900telephone: [254] (20) 363-6000FAX: [254] (20) 363-6157email address and website: kenya_acs@state.govhttps://ke.usembassy.gov/, three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red, and green; the red band is edged in white; a large Maasai warrior's shield covering crossed spears is superimposed at the center; black symbolizes the majority population, red the blood shed in the struggle for freedom, green stands for natural wealth, and white for peace; the shield and crossed spears symbolize the defense of freedom, lion; national colors: black, red, green, white, name: "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu" (Oh God of All Creation)lyrics/music: Graham HYSLOP, Thomas KALUME, Peter KIBUKOSYA, Washington OMONDI, and George W. SENOGA-ZAKE/traditional, adapted by Graham HYSLOP, Thomas KALUME, Peter KIBUKOSYA, Washington OMONDI, and George W. SENOGA-ZAKEnote: adopted 1963; based on a traditional Kenyan folk song, total World Heritage Sites: 7 (4 cultural, 3 natural)selected World Heritage Site locales: Lake Turkana National Parks (n); Mount Kenya National Park (n); Lamu Old Town (c); Sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forests (c); Fort Jesus, Mombasa (c); Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley (n); Thimlich Ohinga Archaeological Site (c), fast growing, third largest Sub-Saharan economy; strong agriculture and emerging services and tourism industries; current account deficit and high debt; broadband and mobile-money platform investments; surging inflation due to oil and food hikes; new investor-friendly incentives; environmentally fragile economy, $251.431 billion (2021 est. All Somalis were required to register and to prove their belonging, consolidating their position as ambiguous citizens.Footnote17 The various counterinsurgency measures taken by the Kenyan state had severe economic impacts and to this day, the northeastern region remains one of the least developed, producing a dual exclusion of both the region and its people,Footnote18 with the regular internal checkpoint in Garissa still resembling a border station to Kenya for many Somalis.Footnote19, Outside of the northeastern region, urbanized Kenyan Somalis also felt marginalized: they were not only held responsible for the secessionist movement, but also lost the socio-economic status they had occupied in pre-independence society. IEBC, Post-election Evaluation Report, 72. Diaspora Somalis Negotiate Their Citizenship, Remembering Wagalla: State Violence in Northern Kenya, 19621991, Counting as Citizens: Recognition of the Nubians in the 2009 Kenyan Census, Feeling the Pinch: Kenya, Al-Shabaab, and East Africas Refugee Crisis, Urban Refugees in Nairobi: Problems of Protection, Mechanisms of Survival, and Possibilities for Integration, Navigating Ethnicity and Electoral Politics in Northern Kenya: The Case of the 2013 Election, Autochthony: Local Or Global? 11 Mainly . Kenya has experienced dramatic population growth since the mid-20th century as a result of its high birth rate and its declining mortality rate. The most credible attempt at talks to end decades of armed conflict in Ogaden may soon . ), 5.74% (2021 est. Kenyan Somalis have become a stronger part of the Kenyan political sphere, as well as of the Kenyan economy, yet they are still marginalized in terms of legal recognition of their citizenship. 29.6% vs 36.1% 2.22x higher real GDP growth rate? 73. )from petroleum and other liquids: 16.459 million metric tonnes of CO2 (2019 est. The Swahili language is widely used as a means of communication in several East African countries. I met only a few Kenyan Somalis who had family networks spanning across the border to Somalia or who had moved for work reasons to Somalia. 113. The adjusted numbers published later are still considered dubious by many.Footnote53 Weitzberg has shown how problematic census results were already in colonial times.Footnote54 For nomadic populations, underreporting was observed frequently, as the census logic is linked to a sedentary lifestyle. Their positioning in a gray space within Kenyan society, leaves them neither integrated nor eliminated, forming pseudo-permanent margins.Footnote9 What impact the new urgency to form a more united Kenyan nation, following the post-election violence in 20072008, has on its Somali population is discussed below. Letter of the chief secretary Turnbull to the Secretary of the East African Ishakia Association, July 1955; ADM 15/1/14/87A (Kenya National Archives, Nakuru). )$4,500 (2020 est. 61. relatively successful government counter-insurgency campaign - have exhausted the local Ethiopian-Somali population sufficiently to push the ONLF back to the table. On the massacre see also TJRC, Final Report 2A, 221367, and Sheikh, Blood on the Runway. Interview with Ibrahim, Nairobi, September 2010. )female: 2.7% (2020 est. 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. The Christians retreated into what may be called Abyssinia, an easily defensible, socially cohesive unit that included mostly Christian, Semitic-speaking peoples in a territory comprising most of Eritrea, Tigray, and Gonder and parts of Gojam, Shewa, and Welo. And when he talked about marginalization, Kenya was the point of reference, not Somalia. 23. Therefore, the 2013 election campaigns brought a considerable electoral focusto the north.Footnote62 The prospect of economic development arising from Kenyas Vision 2030, with its special dedication to the north, increased the relevance of the elections further. Amina, a young woman in her early 20s, was born in Nakuru. ), revenues: $16.885 billion (2019 est. )5.01% (2019 est. Meanwhile, the situation in neighbouring Somalia worsened, starting with the Ogaden war (1977-1978). They were not only associated with insecurity and later terrorism, but also to perceptions that refugees were a burden who took away commercial opportunities from Kenyans.Footnote31 There were also widespread accusations that they acquired Kenyan passports illegally. In contrast to the above-mentioned groups, however, their ambiguousness has a more severe impact. Campbell, Urban Refugees in Nairobi, 401. Abdhullahi, in contrast, mostly stayed away from other Somalis, with the exception of business endeavours. When the results were published in September 2010, Kenyan Somalis were, as in 1999, the strongest growing group. Almost 40% of Kenyans are under the age of 15 as of 2020 because of sustained high fertility, early marriage and childbearing, and an unmet need for family planning. 13. When applying for a passport Kenyan Somalis had to complete a special form for applicants claiming citizenshipwho do not belong to an African tribe indigenous to Kenya. Hansard (Parliamentary Debate), April 28 1994, House of Representatives Official Report 1 (22), Republic of Kenya, p. 579. The establishment of counties, provided for in the new Constitution as an outcome of the post-electoral violence of 20072008, aimed at decentralizing power.Footnote57 Thereby the right of communities to manage their own affairs and to further their development was recognized.Footnote58 Minorities cautiously welcomed devolution, hoping for more control. This inability to speak Somali was true even though Abdullahis brothers mainly lived within Somali circles: their closest contacts were members of the extended kin network and of their own clan and the flat in which Abdullahi was living was situated in a Somali middle class neighbourhood. Giving Informality Room. But counting ethnic affiliation also created opportunities for the negotiation of belonging to Kenya. )tide and wave: 0% of total installed capacity (2020 est. ), $11.825 billion (2021 est.) Differences in the identification process can also occur over time. See Balaton-Chrimes, Counting as Citizen.. 76. )hydroelectricity: 32.6% of total installed capacity (2020 est. 39. In the case of Kenyan Somalis, this notion is further complicated. Janet McIntosh argues in her article about white citizens of Kenya, who, similar to Kenyan Somalis, have a conspicuous minority status, that even though the Kenyan government stated that all Kenyans are indigenous,Footnote80 this phrase implicitly only refers to Kenyans of African descent, linking national belonging to race. )5.4% (2020 est. During the 2011 drought in the northern regions of the country, for instance, there was a wave of solidarity with people donating to campaigns such as Kenyans for Kenya. Kenyan Somalis are drawn back and forth between an emphasis on their ethnic Somaliness and their belonging to Kenya as citizens they share their socialization with other fellow Kenyans, but are treated as if not quite belonging to Kenya. )note: data represents median age at first birth among women 25-49, 530 deaths/100,000 live births (2020 est. Kenya Population Census 1969, 1; Kenya Population Census 1979, 8. )exports: 16 million kWh (2019 est. 21. Its regional capital is Garbahaarreey. )spirits: 0.81 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est. Lewis, The Ogaden, 578; But cf. In these cases, however, the main difference is also created by the context of socialization. To learn about our use of cookies and how you can manage your cookie settings, please see our Cookie Policy. Accessed March 6, 2018. http://www.unhcr.org/ke/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/01/Kenya-Operation-Factsheet-December-2017-.pdf. This argument was already raised in 1974 during a discussion about the motion Compulsary birth registration for Isiolo and Marsabit Somali (Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, May 17, 1974, p. 1408). 103. ), total: 26.94 deaths/1,000 live birthsmale: 29.94 deaths/1,000 live birthsfemale: 23.88 deaths/1,000 live births (2023 est. 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. In the last decade, the government has slowly become more attentive to this region, for instance by the establishment of a Ministry of Northern Kenya and other Arid Areas in 2008.Footnote35 In addition, in 2009, the LAPSSET (Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport) project was announced, aiming at the creation of a infrastructure network linking the northern regions to central Kenya and therefore ideally becoming a means through which northerners could be drawn into the nation proper.Footnote36, The immigration of Somalian refugees enabled more contacts between Kenyan Somalis and Somalians, yet it also led Kenyan Somalis to realign questions of Kenyanness and belonging. 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. )imports: 822,000 metric tons (2020 est. Their figures rely on the (problematic) census 2009. One of the biggest took place in April 2014 as usalama watch (security watch), when police went to urban neighbourhoods where ethnic Somalis live to arrest foreign nationals and terrorism suspects.Footnote74 The government also used extra-judicial killings and disappearances mainly in the northeastern region, returning to strategies employed under emergency regulations.Footnote75 Thirdly, the border to Somalia was temporarily closed and in 2015 Kenya started to build a wall along it. In the multi-ethnic state of Kenya, many are subjected to this ambiguous citizenship: Asians, white Kenyans, Nubians, or Arabs. 52. (Kiswahili), Christian 85.5% (Protestant 33.4%, Catholic 20.6%, Evangelical 20.4%, African Instituted Churches 7%, other Christian 4.1%), Muslim 10.9%, other 1.8%, none 1.6%,don'tknow/no answer0.2% (2019 est.). She was curious about him and argued that the good thing about him was that he came from the country of her father: from home, from Somalia. This perception was not only linked to a feeling of cultural proximity, but also to personal contacts which are often clan-centred. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. Mzee Jamal, an old Somali man in Nakuru, told me: They had no place for Somalis in Kenya. Chau, The Fourth Point, 308. )beer: 0.81 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est. the report brings us up to date on a 20 year-old insurgency waged by some Ogadeeni members of the larger ethnic Somali population in parts of the Ogaden region, which stretches across south-eastern Ethiopia and the borders of Kenya and the Somali territories. 16. Abdullahi left Nakuru immediately after recovering and started a new life in Nairobi. This paper deals with the first two categories, Kenyan Somalis who have a well-founded claim to Kenyan citizenship. 28 Apr 2023 12:38:55 Their perception of religious, economic and political marginalization partly derives from the feeling of lost power, which emerged with colonialism and intensified after independence. They did so out of feelings of alienation, but also due to the perception that they were losing out to Kenyan Somalis from the northeastern region, who at this time acquired higher positions in the Kenyan administration.Footnote102 Furthermore, the economic situation of Kenya deteriorated in the 1990s and many families feared to lose their (lower) middle class status which they had preserved after independence.Footnote103 Renewed interest in moving away resulted from the securitized policy of the Kenyan state since 2013.Footnote104 To go to Europe, the two brothers had to become more Somali by learning the language properly. Now I haven't mentioned the Ogadeni clan as they also inhabit NFD because I see them as traitors and work for the interest of Kenya majority of them. Government commitment and international technical support spurred Kenyan contraceptive use, decreasing the fertility rate (children per woman) from about 8 in the late 1970s to less than 5 children twenty years later, but it has plateaued at about 3 children as of 2022. 19. Lonsdale, Soil, Work, Civilization, 308. See Balaton-Chrimes, Counting as Citizens.. 60. Kenya Population Census 1962, 34-5. Many are in refugee camps in Kenya and Yemen, from where they recount stories of horrific abuse. See also Menkhaus, Conflict Assessment, 94 and 110. ), electrification - total population: 85% (2019)electrification - urban areas: 99% (2019)electrification - rural areas: 79% (2019), installed generating capacity: 3.304 million kW (2020 est. About 95% of them are Muslim. Last but not least the term ambiguous citizenship encapsulates different dimensions of citizenship while people can be treated as belonging in some of them, they are not necessarily categorized as citizens in others. 0-14 years: 36.45% (male 10,447,425/female 10,349,611)15-64 years: 60.26% (male 17,196,347/female 17,185,035)65 years and over: 3.28% (2023 est.) 27. ), improved: urban: 84% of populationrural: 48.1% of populationtotal: 58.2% of populationunimproved: urban: 16% of populationrural: 51.9% of populationtotal: 41.8% of population (2020 est. ), 5.325 million NAIROBI (capital), 1.440 million Mombassa (2023), at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female0-14 years: 1.01 male(s)/female15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/femaletotal population: 1 male(s)/female (2023 est. But it is not that Kenyan Somalis dont want to be part of Kenya. Candidates aimed at maximizing the numbers of their own group, either by registering their voters in their area, or by driving others out.Footnote59 Even though the territorialization of ethnicity already started in colonial times, it was strengthened with re-introducing the multi-party system in 1992, and further intensified with devolution.Footnote60 The 47 county governments furthermore control about 30% of national revenue, divided between them in part according to population size, deepening discussions about the census figures of 2009.Footnote61. The Ogaden is the historical name for much of the current SNRS. Interviews with Amina, 2010, and with Ijaabo, Mombasa, August 2016. )1.2% of GDP (2020)1.2% of GDP (2019)1.3% of GDP (2018)1.4% of GDP (2017), approximately 24,000 personnel (20,000 Army; 1,500 Navy; 2,500 Air Force) (2022), the KDF's inventory traditionally carried mostly older or second-hand Western weapons systems, particularly from France, the UK, and the US; however, since the 2000s it has sought to modernize and diversify its imports, and suppliers have included more than a dozen countries including China, Italy, and the US (2022), no conscription; 18-26 years of age for male and female voluntary service (under 18 with parental consent; upper limit 30 years of age for specialists, tradesmen, or women with a diploma; 39 years of age for chaplains/imams); 9-year service obligation (7 years for Kenyan Navy) and subsequent 3-year re-enlistments; applicants must be Kenyan citizens (2022), 260 Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO); 3,650 Somalia (ATMIS) (2022)note: in November 2022, Kenya sent approximately 1,000 troops to the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as part of a newly formed East Africa Community Regional Force (EACRF) to assist the DRC military against the rebel group M23; the force is led by Kenya, the KDF is considered to be an experienced, effective, and professional force; it has conducted operations in neighboring Somalia since 2011 and taken part in numerous regional peacekeeping and security missions; it is a leading member of the Africa Standby Force; the KDF trains regularly, participates in multinational exercises, and has ties to a variety of foreign militaries, including those of France, the UK, and the US; its chief security concerns and missions include protecting the countrys sovereignty and territory, regional disputes, the threat posed by the al-Shabaab terrorist group based in neighboring Somalia, maritime crime and piracy, and assisting civil authorities in responding to emergency, disaster, or political unrest as requestedthe Army has 5 combat brigades, including 3 infantry, an armored, and an artillery brigade; it also has a helicopter-equipped air cavalry battalion and a special operations regiment comprised of airborne, special forces, and ranger battalions; the Navy has several offshore patrol vessels, large coastal patrol boats, and missile-armed craft; the Air Force has a small inventory of older US-origin fighter aircraft, as well as some transport aircraft and combat helicopters Kenyan military forces intervened in Somalia in October 2011 to combat the al Qaida-affiliated al-Shabaab terrorist group, which had conducted numerous cross-border attacks into Kenya; in November 2011, the UN and the African Union invited Kenya to incorporate its forces into the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM); Kenyan forces were formally integrated into AMISOM in February 2012; they consist of approximately 3,600 troops and are responsible for AMISOMs Sector 2 comprising Lower and Middle Jubba (see Appendix T for additional details on al-Shabaab; note - as of May 2022, AMISOM was renamed the AU Transition Mission in Somalia or ATMIS)the Kenya Military Forces were created following independence in 1963; the current KDF was established and its composition laid out in the 2010 constitution; it is governed by the Kenya Defense Forces Act of 2012; the Army traces its origins back to the Kings African Rifles (KAR), a British colonial regiment raised from Britain's East Africa possessions from 1902 until independence in the 1960s; the KAR conducted both military and internal security functions within the colonial territories, and served outside the territories during the World Wars (2023), the International Maritime Bureau reported no piracy attacks in the territorial and offshore waters of Kenya in 2022; although the opportunity for incidents has reduced, the Somali pirates continue to possess the capability and capacity to carry out incidents; in the past, vessels have also been targeted off Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mozambique, as well as in the Indian ocean, and off the west and south coasts of India and west Maldives; generally, Somali pirates tend to be well armed with automatic weapons, RPGs and sometimes use skiffs launched from mother vessels, which may be hijacked fishing vessels or dhows; the Maritime Administration of the US Department of Transportation has issued a Maritime Advisory (2023-003 - Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, Bab al Mandeb Strait, Red Sea, and Somali Basin-Threats to Commercial Vessels) effective 23 February 2023, which states in part that "Regional conflict, military activity, and political tensions pose threats to commercial vessels operating in the above listed geographic areas" that shipping in territorial and offshore waters in the Indian Ocean remain at risk for piracy and armed robbery against ships, al-Shabaab; Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)/Qods Forcenote: details about the history, aims, leadership, organization, areas of operation, tactics, targets, weapons, size, and sources of support of the group(s) appear(s) in Appendix-T, Kenya-Ethiopia: their border was demarcated in the 1950s and approved in 1970; in 2012, Kenya and Ethiopia agreed to redemarcate their boundary following disputes over beacons and cross-border crime, Kenya-Somalia: Kenya works hard to prevent the clan and militia fighting in Somalia from spreading across the border, which has long been open to nomadic pastoralists; in 2021, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gave Somalia control over a disputed ocean area where the seabeds are believed to hold vasts oil and gas deposits; the ICJ ruling gave Somalia the rights to several offshore oil exploration blocks previously claimed by Kenya; Kenya did not recognize the courts decision, Kenya-South Sudan: two thirds of the boundary that separates Kenya and South Sudan's sovereignty known as the Ilemi Triangle has been unclear since British colonial times; Kenya has administered the area since colonial times; officials from Kenya and South Sudan signed a memorandum of understanding on boundary delimitation and demarcation and agreed to set up a joint committee; as of July 2019, the demarcation process was to begin in 90 days, but was delayed due to a lack of funding, Kenya-Sudan: Kenya served as an important mediator in brokering Sudan's north-south separation in February 2005, Kenya-Tanzania: Kenya and Tanzania were conducting a joint reaffirmation process in November 2021 to ensure the border was visibly marked with pillars, Kenya-Uganda: Kenya and Uganda began a joint demarcation of the boundary in 2021, refugees (country of origin): 21,620 (Ethiopia), 8,159 (Burundi), 5,540 (Sudan) (2022); 281,319 (Somalia), 157,402 (South Sudan), 72,192 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (2023)IDPs: 190,000 (election-related violence, intercommunal violence, resource conflicts, al-Shabaab attacks in 2017 and 2018) (2021)stateless persons: 16,779 (2022); note - the stateless population consists of Nubians, Kenyan Somalis, and coastal Arabs; the Nubians are descendants of Sudanese soldiers recruited by the British to fight for them in East Africa more than a century ago; Nubians did not receive Kenyan citizenship when the country became independent in 1963; only recently have Nubians become a formally recognized tribe and had less trouble obtaining national IDs; Galjeel and other Somalis who have lived in Kenya for decades are included with more recent Somali refugees and denied ID cards, a transit country for a variety of illicit drugs, including heroin and cocaine; transit location for precursor chemicals used to produce methamphetamine and other drugs; transshipment country for heroin from Southwest Asia destined for international markets, mainly Europe, and cocaine transits shipped through Ethiopia from South America; cultivates cannabis and miraa (khat) for both local use and export, total population growth rate v. urban population growth rate, 2000-2030, Children under the age of 5 years underweight, International law organization participation, Gini Index coefficient - distribution of family income, Household income or consumption by percentage share, Civil aircraft registration country code prefix, Military and security service personnel strengths, Military equipment inventories and acquisitions, Refugees and internally displaced persons, Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI). Mohammed, from the Dhadhaab (or Dadaab) camp in Kenya, described to Ogaden Online (OO) 1/12/2012 how he was captured by the Ethiopian military, accused of being a supporter of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and mercilessly tortured. This was mainly the result of the shifta conflict of 1963 to 1967, in which inhabitants of the Northern Frontier District attempted to secede from Kenya. In 1993, a Somali parliamentarian narrated a justification he was given by the Principal Immigration officer after Somalis were barred from entering the passport-issuing office: A Somali, whether from Somalia or from Kenya, is a Somali because mtoto wa nyoka ni nyoka [The child of a snake is a snake].Footnote110 These processes of inclusion and exclusion can take place almost simultaneously.

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