“Ambiguous citizens”: Kenyan Somalis and the question of belonging

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with the way a “politics of belonging” has been enacted in recent years in Kenya, and what this means for the Somali population of the country. Even though Kenyan Somalis have been treated as “ambiguous citizens” since independence, the question for many of them is not so much if they belong to Kenya, but rather how. 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. Kenyan Somalis seem to be ambiguous in both of them. Following McIntosh’s contention that one way to claim “Kenyanness” is to appeal to “a civic nationalism, in which all groups invested in the nation are equally welcome”, this article argues – based on ethnographic data gathered since 2010 as well as archival sources – that many Kenyan Somalis are ready to take this possibility up, if they have the chance to do so.

KEYWORDS:

• Kenya
• Somali
• citizenship: politics of belonging

Acknowledgments

Precursors of this paper were presented at the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies in December 2013 and the Somali Studies Conference in Helsinki in 2015. My thanks go to James Carrier, David O’Kane, John Eidson and Keren Weitzberg for their fruitful comments and to Fatma A. Hassan for her help during fieldwork in Kenya.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Tabea Scharrer http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5640-116X

Notes

1. Weitzberg, We Do Not Have, cautions that also this term implicitly sets Somalis apart from other transnational groups in Kenya (p. 15), for whom nationality is rarely mentioned.

2. Throughout the paper the term Somali is used when referring to the ethnic category, the term Somalian as a national category denotes people coming from Somalia.

3. UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Fact Sheet, Kenya (01-31 December 2017). Accessed March 6, 2018. http://www.unhcr.org/ke/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/01/Kenya-Operation-Factsheet-December-2017-.pdf.

4. Ceuppens and Geschiere, “Autochthony: Local Or Global.”

5. Lochery, “Rendering Difference Visible,” 617.

6. Yuval-Davis, “Intersectionality, Citizenship,” 563.

7. Ibid., 561.

8. See for instance, Soysal, Limits of Citizenship; Al-Sharmani and Horst, “Marginal Actors?”

9. Yiftachel, “Theoretical Notes,” 89.

10. A. Abdullahi, “Kenyan Somalis are Treated Like Second-class Citizens,” Daily Nation, 12 April 2014. http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Kenyan-Somalis-treated-like-second-class-citizens-/440808-2277348-pj74alz/index.html.

11. Administrative boundaries and names changed over time. I either refer to the name used during the respective period or use the geographical term northeastern region.

12. Whittaker, “A New Model Village,” 120.

13. Turton, “The Isaq Somali Diaspora,” 343.

14. 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).

15. This status was similar to that of Nubians, see Sarre, “The Nubians of Kibera.”

16. Turton, “The Isaq Somali Diaspora,” 327.

17. See Whittaker, Insurgency and Counterinsurgency.

18. KHRC, Foreigners at Home, 24.

19. Interview with Abdullahi, Mombasa, August 2011.

20. Interviewed November 2010.

21. Ibrahim, “The Checkered History,” 16–17; Interview with Nabiil, Nakuru, October 2010.

22. Lochery, “Rendering Difference Visible,” 624; Anderson, “Remembering Wagalla,” 662.

23. Anderson, “Remembering Wagalla,” 660. On the massacre see also TJRC, Final Report 2A, 221–367, and Sheikh, Blood on the Runway.

24. Lewis, “The Ogaden,” 578; But cf. Chau, “The Fourth Point,” 308.

25. Lochery, “Rendering Difference Visible,” 616.

26. KHRC, Foreigners at Home, 27.

27. Anderson, “Remembering Wagalla,” 662–663.

28. Lochery, “Rendering Difference Visible,” 617.

29. See Lindley, “Between a Protracted.”

30. According to a Somali MP (interviewed in September 2014), about 100,000 Somalians were living in Eastleigh (Nairobi) alone, many of them not registered. See also Menkhaus, Conflict Assessment, 94 and 110. In Nakuru, I met several families neither registered with the UNHCR nor the Kenyan state.

31. Campbell, “Urban Refugees in Nairobi,” 401.

32. Menkhaus, Conflict Assessment, 18.

33. Interview with Mzee Jamal, Nakuru, November, 2010.

34. Menkhaus, Conflict Assessment, 19.

35. KHRC, Foreigners at home, 42. In 2013 it was merged with the Ministry of Devolution and Planning.

36. Elliott, “Planning, Property and Plots,” 512.

37. Menkhaus, Conflict Assessment, 19.

38. Concerning Somali shopping centres see Scharrer and Carrier, “Giving Informality Room.”

39. These fears were at the core of two discussions I was present at, taking place during the “Coast Regional Peace Summit”, Mombasa, 2011 and among Kenyan participants of a “Conference on Refugees and Forced Migrants”, Kilifi, 2016.

40. Interview with Waez, Nairobi, October 2010.

41. Interview with Ibrahim, Nairobi, September 2010.

42. Tully and Tuwei, “We are one Kenya.”

43. Ibid.

44. See for instance the 2016 exhibition “Who I Am, Who We Are” in Nairobi and an article in the Daily Nation discussing this exhibition. “Echoes of nationhood in the Silent Room,” 24 January 2016. http://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/lifestyle/Echoes-of-nationhood-in-the-Silent-Room/1214-3046604-shee9bz/index.html.

45. See Registration of Persons Act (Laws of Kenya), Revised Edition 2015, paragraphs 6, 9 and 14.

46. KHRC, Foreigners at Home, 23–25.

47. Ibid.

48. Ibid., 7.

49. For example, R. Warah, “Census data on Kenyan Asians raises more questions than answers”, Daily Nation, 5 September 2010, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Census-data-on-Kenyan-Asians-raises-more-questions-than-answers-/440808-1004396-v1yqaw/index.html; See also Jerven, Poor Numbers, 73.

50. www.knbs.or.ke/index.php?Option=com_content&view=article&id=151:ethnic-affiliation&catid=112&Itemid=638 [accessed 17 July 2015].

51. Letter by B. Jommo, “Cross-ethnic and Proud of Ourselves,” Daily Nation, 14 August 2009. http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Letters/440806-639674-8crbl7z/index.html.

52. See Balaton-Chrimes, “Counting as Citizen.”

53. 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.

54. Weitzberg, “The Unaccountable Census.”

55. When adding all categories of “Somali” in the 1989 census, their number stood at 421,340. This figure, however, seems too low. When applying the population growth of Kenya (3.2%), a conservative approach ignoring the high number in children in many Somali families, to the census figures from 1962 (about 270,000 counted as Somali), one should have expected to count about 640,000 people.

56. Balaton-Chrimes, “Counting as Citizens,” 215.

57. Cheeseman et al., “Decentralisation in Kenya,” 3.

58. Abraham, Kenya at 50, 22.

59. Menkhaus, Conflict Assessment.

60. Schlee, “Territorializing Ethnicity.”

61. Cheesman et al., “Decentralisation in Kenya,” 15.

62. Carrier and Kochore, “Navigating Ethnicity,” 135.

63. Ibid., 137.

64. Ibid., 146.

65. IEBC, Post-election Evaluation Report, 72.

66. Menkaus, Conflict Assessment, 38–39. Menkhaus argues that this response strengthened support for al-Shabaab among ethnic Somalis in Kenya.

67. This move, already planned before 2011, was realized after several kidnappings in the northeastern region in 2011 (see Lind et al., “Killing a Mosquito,” 4).

68. HRW, Death and Disappearances, 12–13.

69. Lind et al., “Killing a Mosquito,” 15–16.

70. HRW, Insult to Injury.

71. Burns, “Feeling the Pinch”; HRW, Death and Disappearances, 14, Lind et al., “Killing a Mosquito,” 2, 10.

72. HRW, Death and Disappearances, 15; Lind et al., “Killing a Mosquito.”

73. Daily Nation, “Kenya Vows to Appeal Verdict Blocking Dadaab Camp Closure,” 9 February 2017. http://www.nation.co.ke/news/High-Court-cancels-closure-of-Dabaab/1056-3806030-7enmgdz/index.html; Daily Nation, “We’ve to Shut Dadaab for Security, Uhuru Kenyatta Tells UN”, 8 March 2017. http://www.nation.co.ke/news/-Dadaab-Uhuru-Kenyatta-UN-Antonio-Guterres/1056-3841890-2qvff6z/index.html.

74. HRW, Death and Disappearances, 16; Lind et al., “Killing a Mosquito,” 14.

75. HRW, Death and Disappearances.

76. M. Otsialo, “Kenya-Somalia fence to keep away unwanted elements, says Mandera governor Ali Roba.” Daily Nation, 2 December 2016. http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/mandera/Kenya-Somalia-border-fence/1183298-3472166-hyn3f6z/.

77. Daily Nation, “Security laws illegal, declares High Court,” 23 February 2015. http://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/Security-laws-illegal-declares-High-Court/1064-2633342-jw2qp1/index.html.

78. 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].

79. Lind et al., “Killing a Mosquito,” 15.

80. McIntosh, “Autochthony and ‘Family’,” 253.

81. When applying for a passport Kenyan Somalis had to complete a special form for “applicants claiming citizenship … who 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.

82. Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard), Parliamentary Debates, July 14, 1999, p. 1327 and October 24, 2001, p. 2713.

83. See Balaton-Chrimes, “Counting as Citizens.”

84. KHRC, Foreigners at Home, 24–26; Interview with Amina, August 2016.

85. This term can be seen as a derivation from a Somali greeting (Carrier, Little Mogadishu, 81), but also as originating from the english term “warrior” in contiuation with colonial representations (Abdi, Accidental Citizens, 27).

86. Interviews with Amina, 2010, and with Ijaabo, Mombasa, August 2016.

87. Kusow and Eno, “Formula Narratives.”

88. Lonsdale, “Soil, Work, Civilization,” 308.

89. Ibid., 306–308.

90. 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).

91. Carrier and Kochore, “Navigating Ethnicity,” 144.

92. McIntosh, “Autochthony and ‘Family’,” 257.

93. Ibid., 262.

94. Interview with Mzee Jamal, November 2010.

95. Interviewed Nakuru, October 2010.

96. Wiesmann, Kiteme and Mwangi, Socio-Economic Atlas, 122–128. Their figures rely on the (problematic) census 2009.

97. Interviewed Nakuru, 2012.

98. McIntosh, “Autochthony and ‘Family’,” 265.

99. Lonsdale, “Soil, Work, Civilization,” 309.

100. N. Rugene and D. Kalinaki, “Abdul Haji’s Mission to Rescue Brother Blessing for Westgate Hostages.” Daily Nation, 25 September 2013. http://www.nation.co.ke/news/How-Abdul-Haji-rescued-Westgate-hostages/1056-2007316-5ol57g/index.html.

101. http://kenyaimnotaterrorist.tumblr.com [accessed 21 April 2016].

102. Interview with Mzee Jamal, November 2010.

103. Interviews with Mzee Jamal and with Nabiil, Nakuru, October 2010.

104. Interview with Cawo, Kopenhagen, August 2015.

105. Interview with Tusmo, Mombasa, August 2017.

106. “Walaal” means “sister” or “brother” in Somali and is, similar to “warya”, a reminder of difference.

107. See Hammond, “Somalia Rising”.

108. A similar trend could be observed from the total Kenyan panel, in which the national identification over the ethnic one rose from about 40% (2005/2006) to about 54% (2016/2018). Afrobarometer Data, Kenya, R3–R7, 2005/06–2016/18. Accessed March 7, 2018. http://www.afrobarometer.org.

109. A prominent figure of the Muslim Association of Nakuru, for instance, spoke about “our Somalis” as opposed to “Somalis” when talking about conflicts in the Muslim community (interviewed September 2012).

110. Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, July 21, 1993, p. 1524.

111. Yiftachel, “Theoretical Notes,” 90.

112. Weitzberg, “The Unaccountable Census,” 419.

113. McIntosh, “Autochthony and ‘Family’,” 265.