Security in the ‘Periphery’ of post-colonial states: analysing Pakistan’s ‘tribal’ Pashtuns and Kenyan-Somalis

ABSTRACT

Pakistan and Kenya, though culturally and geographically different, are two states where certain colonial legacies exist in the state and political sphere, even after independence from their colonial masters. This especially applies when dealing with the ‘peripheral’ groups. In the case of Pakistan, the ‘tribal’ Pashtuns have suffered due to persistence of more than a century old colonial-era legal framework in the form of the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), which was finally repealed in May 2018 after the ‘tribal’ region’s merger with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. In the case of Kenya, the Kenyan-Somalis for a long time have had to endure a closed district created by the British colonial administration, special laws, a confrontational relationship with the state and unequal treatment by post-colonial administrations. The essay comparatively discusses both these cases in detail and argues that for peace in Pakistan’s Pashtun ‘tribal’ region, a smooth merger, in its true spirit, with the KP province along with shedding of anti-Pashtun narratives is necessary. Whereas for Kenya, the best opportunity for political and socio-economic integration of Kenyan Somalis is to be found in the framework of the new governance structure contained in the new constitution of Kenya 2010, where executive power has been reduced and significant fiscal and political authority is devolved to county governments.

KEYWORDS:

• Pakistan
• Kenya
• Postcolonialism
• peripheries
• colonial legacies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The term ‘tribal’ can often carry negative connotations in IR discourse. In this essay, the term is used to describe the Pashtuns who live on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, formerly known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

2 The Pashtun tribal areas were constitutionally known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) until May 2018. However, after the 31st Constitutional Amendment Bill passed in the national legislature of Pakistan on May 24, 2018, the 25th Constitutional Amendment was made to the constitution, allowing for FATA’s merger with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The President then signed the draft bill of FATA Interim Governance Act on May, 29, and then approved the 25th Amendment on May 31, paving way for FATA’s merger with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. After the legislation, the tribal agencies, or administrative units, have been renamed as ’Tribal’ districts.

3 Pashtuns are an ethnic group residing in both Afghanistan and Pakistan and are also known by exonyms such as Pashtun, Afghan, Pathan, and Pukhtoon. In Pakistan’s North West, the Khyber Pakhtunwa province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pashtuns make up the largest minority of the country, whereas the largest concentration of Pashtun people, over three million, are based in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi.

4 British Somaliland is today’s the semi-autonomous region of Somaliland with Hargeisa as the capital and seeks international recognition as a fully functional separate state.

5 For instance, with the independent state of Somalia acting as a contiguous state, an unsuccessful struggle to secede and join Somalia was pursued at the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference on Kenya's independence (February-April 1962) by members of the N.F.D and Republic of Somali delegations (Castagno, 1964, p. 176)