A nation in mourning amidst an endless war

President Uhuru Kenyatta with Speaker of National Assembly Justin Muturi (left) and Senate counterpart Ekwe Ethuro (right) leaving the National Assembly where the President addressed special joint seating on March 26, 2015. PHOTO | FILE |

What you need to know:

  • If our objective is to annihilate al-Shaabab, then how come the militants are still carrying out attacks within our borders?

Nigerians who didn’t like former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan praised him for one quintessential act he did while President: Defeated, he relinquished power.

I want to be candid with President Uhuru. We may never win the war in Somalia. You, Mr President, can however end it. Perhaps, apart from relinquishing power, this will be the most remarkable thing history will record about you. How did we enter Somalia?

One Sunday morning in 2011, we woke up to news that our military had entered the territory of Somalia and carried out “successful” air strikes. Later, in his usual abrasive manner, then Government Spokesman Dr Alfred Mutua, now Governor of Machakos County, issued a statement clarifying that Kenyan forces had entered Somalia to fight the al-Shabaab. Period!

From day one, the war in Somalia was a casual thing, like a bad joke among friends. It was conceived prematurely, waged haphazardly and announced jokingly to the public. In the weeks that followed, the media were massively employed to make the public not only accept the war but also “own” it so that it was no longer a government war, conceived and sanctioned solely by the then Kibaki ruling elite, but the nation’s war.

In a democracy, sovereignty lies with the people. And there is no higher exercise of sovereignty than a declaration of war. That a war was declared on a non-state actor in a sovereign nation without our input, but in the guise of protecting us, is treasonous to say the least.

If the propaganda of war at that time blurred the realities of the war in the consciousness of citizens, now, across the country, it is crystal clear. The cost of this war, now in its fourth year without any clear strategy of ending it or stopping it, is there for all to see: Killing of innocent citizens, including schoolchildren, depletion of our defence resources, psychological fear of omnipresent terror, total breakdown of social services in the north east of the country, the shifting of political blame and inability of the ruling elite to hold itself accountable which has been manifested in the failure of the internal security apparatus to protect citizens, like happened at Garissa University College. Many other dastardly things happening every day in the lives of Kenyans were not imagined in 2011 when Kibaki sent soldiers to Somalia.

As this war rages on, a new virulent propaganda on criminal culpability of Somalis and Muslims is furiously being manufactured by those who have failed foremost in vanquishing al-Shabaab, and securing the country. Pro-Government politicians, some of whom are Somalis, have been too willing to pass the buck from those who declared the war to those who the war was waged to salvage from Shabaab tyranny.

Online, the Jubilee regime’s massive social media army has churned hashtag after hashtag blaming the whole Muslim community. Each attack and each death come with a heightened demand for Muslims and Somalis to take responsibility.

FUNDING TERRORISM

In North Eastern, Nairobi and Mombasa, Somali and Muslim organisations and businesses are virtually under the radar of security agencies for allegedly funding terrorism. Somali and Muslim leaders in civil society, government and religious organisations today find themselves the subject of a silent outrage and covert suspicion from colleagues and friends.

Up to this day, I keep asking myself the same questions that crossed my mind in 2011. What was the objective of this war? What are we in Somalia to achieve? What is our exit strategy?

If our objective is to annihilate al-Shaabab, then how come the militants are still carrying out attacks within our borders?

Over seven decades ago at the height of World War II, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini flew to Berlin to urge Hitler to make peace with Stalin. In Mussolini’s assessment, the very vast size of Russia made it unconquerable.

The same can be said of al-Shaabab: The very nature of this organisation and its objectives makes the idea of its military defeat ridiculous. It is primarily a terror group and not a military organisation that can be meaningfully engaged by conventional military forces.

The writer is the Member of Parliament for Suna East.