By WILLIAM OCHIENG
August 09, 2011
In a paper which I read at a recent conference at Maseno University, I argued that as we prepare to admit the new independent state of South Sudan into the East African Community, we should not forget Somalia.
I argued that geographically shielded from the African continent by Kenya and Ethiopia, Somalia will forever be our headache until we absorb it into the fold of her East African neighbours.
This, in fact, was the point which Tom Mboya and Julius Nyerere made in 1962 when they flew to Mogadishu to persuade Somalia to join the East African Community.
But things did not work out, because at the time, the Somalis were emotionally involved in the agitation for a Greater Somalia.
They wanted Kenya’s North Eastern Province and Ethiopia’s Ogaden Province to be ceded to them.
Nevertheless, when Somalia is confronted by tragedies, Kenya and Ethiopia are usually their immediate centres of refuge.
Currently, the Somalis are faced with one of the harshest droughts in their history. About 450,000 of them have fled from their country, with roughly 1,400 refugees arriving daily at Dadaab refuge camp, despite the fact that officially, Kenya’s border with Somalia is closed.
Interestingly, two very intelligent colleagues at the conference objected to my suggestion that Somalia should join the East African Community.
According to them, the Somalis are quarrelsome and brutal terrorists. They are difficult to live with and to do business with.
“They do not pay rent and they do not pay debt. If you insist to be paid, they physically fight you,” one of the two alleged.
Besides, the Somalis come from a dry and barren country, which is going to add no value to the East African Community, whereas the South Sudanese have oil and very fertile country for agriculture.
My rebuttal was that such views were inaccurate and laced with propaganda. We, in Kenya, live with Somalis in North Eastern Province, in Eastleigh, in Mombasa, in Migori, Kitale and Kisumu, and there is no evidence that they are quarrelsome, brutal and disruptive.
Besides, allowing Somalis to join the East Africa Community does not mean they will be allowed to stream into Kenya.
As for their economic value, the Somalis have got plenty of meat, plus hides and skins, from their livestock, and they have demonstrated that they can be keen businessmen and investors.
But the above are not the only issues to consider with regard to the admission of Somalia into the East African Community.
We are also concerned with the stability of Eastern Africa, which we cannot achieve with the Somalis on their own along the Indian Ocean coastline.
In any case, what was the justification for admitting the Rwandans and Burundians in the community and keeping the Somalis out? There is still room for one or two more East African states in the community.
We have in mind Ethiopia and North Sudan. We also know that the Democratic Republic of Congo is keen to join and so is Eritrea. Shall we consider all these and leave Somalia out?
But apart from considering our neighbours for the East African Community, we should never forget the great dream of continental African union, which our founding pan-Africanists, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda and poet-cum-statesman Leopold Sedar Senghor had in mind.
These African giants saw the continent’s future through a global perspective. They envisaged a united and self-sufficient Africa as the ultimate objective of all independence struggles.
They saw an Africa strong enough to prevent military dictatorship, and one able to resist multinationals and other neo-colonialist forces and to create prosperity for all its people. This is still our continental goal and dream.
Prof Ochieng’ teaches History at Maseno University.