Somali Kenya-lovers: a Kenyan's perspective on Somalis

[TheFuturist]

Kenyans seem to display such overt disdain and disregard for Somalis... yet many foolish Somalis give their money to Kenya/Kenyans when they go on holiday there, start businesses there, invest in property there. We need a divest/boycott movement.

Intiina Nairobi/Mombasa 2nd home ka dhigtay, Kenyaatidu waxay idin yidhaahdeem:

"Somalia's elites spend much of their time in Nairobi wheeler-dealing, laundering money and generally having a good time as their people kill each other."

Somalia is now taking Kenya too much for granted for her own good

Some failed states reach a point where they become a joke.

Last week’s move by the Somali parliament to vote for the expulsion of the Kenya Defence Forces from their country was more comical than serious.

Hardly anybody in Kenya skipped a beat about it.

Yet it is part of a trend of increasingly loony behaviour by a neighbour who has refused to understand her position in the scheme of things.

First of all, of what practical value was this vote anyway?

The KDF troops in Somalia are answerable to Amisom, not the Somali government.

Amisom is a creation of the United Nations and the African Union. To disband it would require a resolution of the United Nations Security Council.

ILLEGAL TRADE

Curiously, the Somali vote was specifically against the KDF, not the other Amisom components from Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi and Sierra Leone.

The anti-KDF backlash was ostensibly about a contested civil society report released from Nairobi that claims the Kenyan military is in bed with Al-Shabaab in the illegal business of charcoal and sugar smuggling.

Whether this deliberately sensational report is factual or not is neither here nor there.

At bottom, the Somali vote was not about that.

BORDER WALL

The vote was about the security wall Kenya is building along the 700-km border.

For some reason, the fence has terribly upset the politicians in Somalia.

Personally, I am at a loss in comprehending these emotional reactions. Kenya is a sovereign state.

If she wants to enclose her borders with walls or make unwanted refugees squat in isolated camps, it is entirely within her sovereign rights.

We have not heard Mexico screaming at the United States because of the fortified barriers in place along their common border.

In fact, on the matter of temperament, the Somali leaders can learn a lot from other people.

OUT OF FOCUS

Politicians in Somalia have this strange way of seeing everything out of focus. No wonder their country is such a mess.

They know perfectly well the security reasons that have forced Kenya to build the fence.

The Somali expectation that they should be at liberty to walk in and out of Kenya at will is what has made us suffer horrible atrocities at the hands of Shabaab.

Somali leaders’ capacity for self-delusion never ceases to amaze.

The other day they sprung a nasty surprise when they took Kenya to the International Court of Justice at The Hague over the delimitation of the common offshore boundary in the Indian Ocean.

OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS RESERVES

The way the Somali government wants the sea borderline delineated is simply absurd.

Mogadishu wants the maritime line to go down diagonally to the south-east.

Kenya insists on a straight line to the east, as with its maritime boundary with Tanzania.

The ocean territory Kenya would stand to lose stretches for more than 100,000 square kilometres.

Somalia’s intended grab is fuelled by reports of potential offshore oil and gas reserves.

Somalia has an unfortunate habit of taking its neighbours for granted, without properly calculating the consequences if her bluff is called.

Even as she struts around making empty threats, her elites spend much of their time in Nairobi wheeler-dealing, laundering money and generally having a good time as their people kill each other.

MAKESHIFT GOVERNMENTS

Amid their endless fights, it is here they come to cobble together their makeshift governments.

They also expect us to take in their refugees, without question, whom they are in no hurry to want back.

Some of those elites travel in fake or genuine foreign passports.

Some of the hoi polloi, who can’t travel, wait for planeloads of miraa from Kenya.

Nobody in that country seems to think tables can be turned.

I recall the yelp of pain from Mogadishu to Hargeisa when Kenya blocked the hawala money transfer system following the Garissa University massacre.

It was the cry of somebody at the complete mercy of another.

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/So ... index.html

[Vivacious]

This emotional frustrated Author is right and I do agree with him that we are a joke for sure but what this sankudhuudhi needs to understand is that nobody gave the KDF troops consent to land in Somalia. This article is annoying though. Lets see some Somalis going cuckoo on him.

[VeiledGarbasar]

Lol, I wouldn't worry too much about Kenyans or Ethiopians, they all fear Somalis. And I'm not even joking. For them, Somalis have resilience and courage that they never had, never will.

Ilahaay hado nafta naga qaadin. Waa laisku fadhiya.

With that said, the age of fighting with your neighbours have long past, as a Somali I wouldn't want that, but what I want is to show several mandem how success ala Somali style looks like. Stay tuned. It will happen within a few years iA.

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

Lol, I wouldn't worry too much about Kenyans or Ethiopians, they all fear Somalis. And I'm not even joking. For them, Somalis have resilience and courage that they never had, never will.

Lol, if that were true every Somali so called leader wouldn't make hajj every month to addis ababa and xamar wouldn't be begging kenyans to leave their country. Kenya is also claiming Somalia's sea territories. Hadeynu ahayn dad dhiig iyo sharaf leh we would've blown the fuckers away with our navy. But we have no army, no navy, no leaders, no friends and no pride. We are completely at the mercy of Ethiopia and these fufus.

[JSL3000]

What a beautiful world!

[theyuusuf143]

This bantu is a joke walaahi kenya border shouldnt be inside Somali territory at the first place . No government has the right to build a wall between the same family. This wall will not last longer its against the Interests of the Somali people living there, Somalia government and ofcourse alshabaab.

[theyuusuf143]

Lol, I wouldn't worry too much about Kenyans or Ethiopians, they all fear Somalis. And I'm not even joking. For them, Somalis have resilience and courage that they never had, never will.

Lol, if that were true every Somali so called leader wouldn't make hajj every month to addis ababa and xamar wouldn't be begging kenyans to leave their country. Kenya is also claiming Somalia's sea territories. Hadeynu ahayn dad dhiig iyo sharaf leh we would've blown the fuckers away with our navy. But we have no army, no navy, no leaders, no friends and no pride. We are completely at the mercy of Ethiopia and these fufus.

Ethiopia is playing political game which most somalis do understand. They are trying to Use Some Somalis while All Somalis are trying to use itself in way or the other. At the other hand those fufus are engaged in physical aggression against Somalis. This will eventually back fire them.

[VeiledGarbasar]

LiquidHydrogen, wuu na dhibeey.


TheYusuf,

Not really, uuyuka xata marka ee rabaan way iska soo galaan Somalia...side inaay tahay jardiinkod.

[Lamagoodle]

I wrote an article on this issue (under emotional stress ; too many insulting words, historical facts and rebuff) and submitted ....I agreed with his analysis of the so called somali leaders but boy I insulted his intelligence. I dont think the daily nation will print it though.

[Vivacious]

^ sahan journal perhaps

[Lamagoodle]

^ sahan journal perhaps

Let us wait and see what they reply me qalanjo.

I will perhaps get a reply that that was an editorial opinion piece.

I used a pseudonym.

[Vivacious]

I am glad you perceived him as emotional just like I did too many insults though

[Lamagoodle]

I am glad you perceived him as emotional just like I did too many insults though

Qalanjo, Kuwaan ayaa wax naga sheegaayo

An Anticorruption Plea in Kenya: ‘Please, Just Steal a Little’
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN, NY Times

NAIROBI, Kenya — When it comes to honesty, politicians here don’t usually win many awards.´

But even for Kenyans, who have witnessed countless corruption scandals over the years, the graft coming to light now is almost too outrageous to believe.

This week, a parliamentary committee was given a document detailing millions of dollars that disappeared through some very curious government spending. It included thousands of dollars for simple condom dispensers and, apparently, $85 for ballpoint pens — that is, $85 each.

“A pen?” said John Githongo, a leading anticorruption activist. “More than $80 on a single pen? Come on, this is the biggest bunch of crooks to ever run a government in this part of Africa. This is literally the rape of the country, everything from the poaching of our wildlife to the accumulation of debt at an extraordinary level.”

“It’s scandal after scandal,” said Mr. Githongo, who was once a senior government anticorruption official but had to flee Kenya because of death threats. (He returned a few years later.) “We don’t have a government. We have a scandal.”

"This is the biggest bunch of crooks to ever run a government in this part of Africa," said John Githongo, one of Kenya’s leading anticorruption activists. Credit Simon Maina/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Prices of staples are going up. The currency is tanking. Kenya, historically considered one of the most stable and strategically important nations in Africa, is going deeper and deeper into debt.

Just a few months ago, the government refused to give public schoolteachers a court-ordered raise, saying it had no money, which resulted in an acrimonious strike with children out of class for weeks.

At the same time, the daily newspapers are filled with allegations against ministers and high-ranking officials accused of everything from trying to steal playground land from a primary school to skimming millions off a pipeline contract.

Kenya recently raised $2 billion in a Eurobond, which was supposed to be used for new infrastructure. It is unclear what happened to all that money.

“Can you imagine? We pay taxes, I can barely afford flour, and now this?” said Boniface Wanyama Wekesa, a security guard, looking at a front-page article on Wednesday about the $85 pens. “If you’re going to steal,” he said, echoing the famous words of Mobutu Sese Seko, the former dictator of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), “please, just steal a little.”

The implicated officials have denied any wrongdoing. Manoah Esipisu, a government spokesman, said in a text that “allegations are being investigated.”

“In Kenya,” he wrote, “we believe in our institutions. Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission; director of public prosecutions, judiciary, etc.”

Kenya is a vital Western ally, home to a large Western intelligence community and several Western military bases, overt and covert. It is seen as a reliable bulwark in the battle against the Islamist extremism that troubles neighbors like Somalia. The United States has a tricky line to walk here, because while it needs the Kenyan government’s cooperation for counterterrorism operations, it does not want to be silent on runaway graft.

In July, President Obama spoke strongly about corruption during a visit to Kenya, saying it “holds back every aspect of economic and civil life.”

The United States announced a joint anticorruption commitment with Kenya and recently pledged more than $1 million to set up a specialized Kenyan investigative unit to uncover public corruption connected to transnational crime. The American ambassador to Kenya, Robert F. Godec, said Wednesday, “The United States is deeply concerned by recent allegations of corruption and the misuse of public funds.”

But the West seems to be banging its head against a wall. Activists say that Kenya’s corruption is only getting worse and that the West needs to say less and do more, like denying visas to any Kenyan official accused of stealing public money. Kenya, after all, is still a poor country where many people don’t have clean water to drink or access to electricity. It is not a stretch to say that many lives are made much harder — or even lost — because of all the stolen money.

Kenya is often ranked as one of Africa’s most corrupt nations. Since it has no major oil industry or trove of diamonds or gold, public looting here is usually done through clever and opaque schemes. Big scandals have involved a tangle of companies or complicated currency deals.

But today’s apparent looting spree seems more blatant and desperate, and there may be a few reasons. Already, analysts said, Kenyan politicians are trying to build war chests for the national elections in 2017. The economy is also growing fast, making real estate in Nairobi, the capital, suddenly incredibly valuable, leading to illegal land grabs by those in power.

But Mr. Githongo said it went even deeper than that. He pointed to the fact that Kenya’s two top leaders came into office in 2013 under a cloud, having been indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity tied to the violence that broke out after the disputed 2007 election. President Uhuru Kenyatta was eventually cleared, though the case against the vice president, William Ruto, continues.

“This has a major existential impact,” Mr. Githongo said. “It creates a bohemian, permissive atmosphere from the very top to the bottom. People at all levels of government are saying, ‘If our leaders can get away with it, why not us?’ ”

[original dervish]

That Kenyan author is right.....nobody gives a shit about Somalia, least of all Somali's themselves.