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THE SOCIOECONOMIC DYNAMICS OF THE SHIFTA CONFLICT IN KENYA, c. 1963–8*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2013

HANNAH ALICE WHITTAKER
HANNAH ALICE WHITTAKER*
Affiliation:
SOAS, University of London
*
Author's e-mail: hw23@soas.ac.uk
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Abstract

Using a set of oral testimonies, together with military, intelligence, and administrative reports from the 1960s, this article re-examines the shifta conflict in Kenya. The article moves away from mono-causal, nationalistic interpretations of the event, to focus instead on the underlying socioeconomic dynamics and domestic implications of the conflict. It argues that the nationalist interpretation fails to capture the diversity of participation in shifta, which was not simply made up of militant Somali nationalists, and that it fails to acknowledge the significance of an internal Kenyan conflict between a newly independent state in the process of nation building, and a group of ‘dissident’ frontier communities that were seen to defy the new order. Examination of this conflict provides insights into the operation of the early postcolonial Kenyan state.

Keywords

KenyaSomaliawarpostcolonial
Type
Challenges to Postcolonial Nation-Building
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 53 , Issue 3 , November 2012 , pp. 391 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

*

The Arts and Humanities Research Council funded the research behind this article. The Royal Historical Society, Martin Lynn Scholarship, awarded me additional support. I would like to thank Richard Reid, the editors of this journal, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier drafts of this article.

References

1 Command Paper 1900, Kenya: Report of the Northern Frontier District Commission (London, 1962), 2Google Scholar; Mburu, N., Bandits on the Border: The Last Frontier in the Search for Somali Unity (Trenton, NJ, 2005), 8Google Scholar.

2 The Boran were divided over the issue of secession, a division that reflected religious affiliation. The Boran of Marsabit district were Christian whereas, and in common with the Somali, the Boran of Isiolo district were Muslim.

3 Adar, K. G., Kenyan Foreign Policy Behavior Towards Somalia, 1963–1983 (Lanham, MD, 1994), 85Google Scholar.

4 See Touval, S., Somali Nationalism: International Politics and the Drive for Unity in the Horn of Africa (Cambridge, MA, 1963)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Markakis, J., National and Class Conflict in the Horn of Africa (London, 1990)Google Scholar; Farah, M. I., From Ethnic Response to Clan Identity: A Study of State Penetration among the Somali Nomadic Pastoral Society of Northeastern Kenya (Uppsala, Sweden, 1993)Google Scholar; Adar, Kenyan; Mburu, Bandits.

5 See Mburu, Bandits.

6 Berdal, M., ‘Beyond greed and grievance – and not too soon …’, Review of International Studies, 31:4 (2005), 690CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 See Markakis, National; Farah, From Ethnic Response; Mburu, Bandits; Branch, D., Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1963–2011 (New Haven, CT, 2011)Google Scholar.

8 Schlee, G., Identities on the Move: Clanship and Pastoralism in Northern Kenya (Manchester, 1989)Google Scholar; G. Schlee, ‘Gada systems on the meta-ethnic level: Gabra/Boran/Garre interactions in the Kenya-Ethiopian borderland’, in E. Kurimoto and S. Simose (eds.), Conflict, Age and Power in North East Africa: Age Systems in Transition (Oxford, 1998), 121–46; Schlee, G., ‘Brothers of the Boran once again: on the fading popularity of certain Somali identities in northern Kenya’, Journal of Eastern African Studies, 1:3 (2007), 417–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also G. Oba, ‘Shifting identities along resource borders: becoming and continuing to be Boorana Oromo’, in P. T. W. Baxter, J. Hultin, and A. Triulzi (eds.), Being and Becoming Oromo: Historical and Anthropological Enquiries (Lawrenceville, NJ, 1996), 117–31; Arero, H. W., ‘Coming to Kenya: imagining and perceiving a nation among the Borana of Kenya’, Journal of Eastern African Studies, 1:2 (2007), 292–304CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 The conceptualisation of the border as a resource is drawn from Feyissa, D. and Hoehne, M. V. (eds.), Borders and Borderlands as Resources in the Horn of Africa (Rochester, NY, 2010)Google Scholar.

10 Branch, D., Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya: Counterinsurgency, Civil War, and Decolonization (Cambridge, 2009), 8Google Scholar.

11 See Ogot, B. A. and Ochieng, W. R. (eds.), Decolonization and Independence in Kenya, 1940–93 (London, 1995)Google Scholar; Branch, Kenya.

12 Interview with Deghow Maalim Sambul, Garissa, 16 Dec. 2008.

13 D. Crummey, ‘Banditry and resistance: noble and peasant in nineteenth-century Ethiopia’, in D. Crummey (ed.), Banditry, Rebellion and Social Protest in Africa (London, 1986), 133–5; Iyob, R., The Eritrean Struggle for Independence: Domination, Resistance, Nationalism, 1941–1993 (Cambridge, 1995), 72Google Scholar.

14 Crummey, ‘Banditry’, 135.

15 Kenya National Archive, Nairobi (KNA) BV/111/78, N. Cossins, ‘North East Province Kenya: A study of its pastoral Somali’ (Aug. 1970), 75–6; Interview with Abdo Barre, Garissa, 17 Dec. 2008; Interview with Gufu Arero and Fugich Dabassa, Isiolo, 6 Oct. 2008.

16 Hansard, Republic of Kenya, House of Representatives Official Report Volume I (Part II), 23 July-29 November 1963, (Nairobi, 28 Nov. 1963), Cols. 2400–28.

17 Interview with Adan Wako Bonaya, Nairobi, 20 Dec. 2008.

18 Interview with Fatuma Gabow, Garissa, 16 Dec. 2008. Her husband defected from the administration police to become a shifta group leader; Interview with Wario Tadicha, Isiolo, 6 Oct. 2008, the son of a Boran chief and the brother of an active shifta leader.

19 Interview with Dahir Hajj, Isiolo, 7 Oct. 2008; Interview with Jillo Golicha, Garba Tulla, 23 Dec. 2008.

20 Interview with Iftin Hussein, Garissa, 15 Dec. 2008; Interview with Boku Jirma, Garba Tulla, 23 Dec. 2008.

21 KNA District Commissioner (DC)/Isiolo (ISO)/4/7/14, Garba Tulla to Isiolo, Ref. EN.24/16, 18 Nov. 1967; Interview with Waqo Bagajo, Isiolo, 7 Oct. 2008.

22 A total of 46 individuals were interviewed from Nairobi and from Marsabit, Isiolo, Garba Tulla, and Garissa within the contested area. They represent an eclectic mix of informants including former shifta insurgents and male and female civilian residents who lived in the area during the conflict period. To protect the identity of some of the interviewees, pseudonyms have been used.

23 Arero's comments, Interview with Gufu Arero and Fugich Dabassa; Interview with Guyatu Boru, Garba Tulla, 23 Dec. 2008.

24 Interview with Farah Mohamed, Garba Tulla, 23 Dec. 2008.

25 Interview with Abdub Galgallo and Ali Wario, Garba Tulla, 23 Dec. 2008; Interview with Adan Banchalle, Isiolo, 5 Oct. 2008.

26 National Archives, London (NA) Colonial Office (CO) 822/3055, government paper, ‘Somali activity in the North East Region: Tabulation of recent trends of events’.

27 See KNA BB/1/156, BB/1/157, and BB/1/158, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Reports.

28 Interview with Adan Banchalle.

29 NA CO 822/3055, government paper, ‘Somali activity in the North East Region: Tabulation of recent trends of events’.

30 For instance during October 1963, Captain Abdullahi Mohamed of the Somali army met the chief of the Mandera Gurreh at Bur Hache, Degodia leaders from Mandera at Bur Hache, and then the chief of the Murille to negotiate over resources independently of each other. NA CO 822/3055, government paper, ‘Somali activity in the North East Region: Tabulation of recent trends of events’.

31 Interview with Farah Mohamed.

32 For an example see KNA BB/1/98, Secretary of the NPUA to Provincial Commissioner Northern Province, ‘Unsatisfied action of Kenya police in Marsabit’, 23 Apr. 1962.

33 KNA BB/1/156, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Report No. 18/63, 24–30 Sep. 1963, and Report No. 28/63, 29 Oct.–4 Nov. 1963; Interview with Hirbo Galawe, Marsabit, 27 Sept. 2008.

34 These descriptive terms have been drawn as examples, and can be found in various administrative, intelligence, and security reports at the KNA.

35 Interview with Jattani Adano, Marsabit, 28 Sept. 2008.

36 Interview with Farhia Mohamed, Isiolo, 5 Oct. 2008; Interview with Bashir Dere, Isiolo, 6 Oct. 2008; Interviews with Fugich Dabassa, Dahir Hajj, Gufu Arero, and Fatuma Gabow.

37 See KNA BB/1/156, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Reports, 1963–1964.

38 For instance, on 13 November 1963, two grenades were thrown and rifles were fired into Rhamu police post. This was followed three days later by an attack on a General Service Unit camp at Walmerer. Then on the evening of the 18 November, police posts at Kolbio and Liboi in Garissa were fired upon with rifles. See KNA BB/1/156, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Report No. 25/63.

39 On 20 April 1964, thirty shifta ambushed a party of thirteen ‘Tribal’ and Kenya policemen near Witu, Coast Province. On the same day ten of the thirty also attacked nearby Malele village, where they looted houses, stole cattle, and burnt ten huts. In the course of the attack six Giriama were killed. Similarly, on 11 June forty shifta attacked Kathangaeini Village in North Tharaka, Meru District, before raiding Kianjoro market the following day where twelve people were killed. See KNA BB/1/157, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Reports Nos. 16/64 and 24/64.

40 KNA BB/12/26, ‘Operations against shifta an appreciation and statistics. The fourth year’, Police Headquarters, Nairobi, Jan. 1968.

41 For instance, shifta activity was high during February 1964, after the Somali Republic received an estimated £11 million investment in the Somali army from the Soviet Union. See Markakis, National, 180. However, in mid-1964 shifta activity declined. This coincided with a period of open war between the Somali Republic and Ethiopia over the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. See Lewis, I. M., A Modern History of the Somali: Nation and State in the Horn of Africa (Oxford, 2002), 201Google Scholar.

42 For instance on 12 June 1964, 400 Boran from Isiolo raided a Samburu manyatta. It was reported that eleven shifta were involved in the incident where donkeys and cattle were stolen. Fourteen Samburu were also killed in the course of the attack. See KNA BB/1/157, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Report No. 24/64.

43 KNA BB/1/157, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Report No. 25/64.

44 KNA BB/1/158, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Report No. 52/64.

45 Lewis, Modern History, 30.

46 KNA Provincial Commissioner (PC)/NFD4/1/1, R. G. Turnbull, ‘The impact on East Africa of the Somali and Galla’, (1953), 6.

47 KNA PC/NFD4/1/1, R. G. Turnbull, ‘The impact on East Africa of the Somali and Galla’, (1953), 6; E. R. Turton, ‘The pastoral tribes of northern Kenya, 1800–1916’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of London, 1971), 440–6.

48 Command Paper 1900, Kenya, 7; Castagno, A. A., ‘The Somali-Kenyan controversy: implications for the future’, The Journal of Modern African Studies, 2:2 (1964), 170CrossRefGoogle Scholar; P. T. Dalleo, ‘Trade and pastoralism: economic factors in the history of the Somali of northeastern Kenya, 1892–1948’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Syracuse University, 1975), 262–4.

49 For instance, in January 1966, the district commissioner at Garissa complained of the difficulties he faced keeping ‘tribesmen’ in their areas. KNA DC/ISO/4/7/6, District Commissioner Garissa to District Commissioner Isiolo, Reference No. LND.16/5/Vol.II/(42), 12 Jan. 1966; Arero's comments, Interview with Gufu Arero and Fugich Dabassa.

50 Interview with Bashir Dere.

51 The two attacks that were targeted at the security forces occurred on 21 June 1964, when a Kenya Rifles convoy was ambushed at Funyatta, and in the week ending 5 October 1965, when an army patrol was fired on at Alangor Abor. KNA BB/1/157, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Report No. 25/64; BB/1/158, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Report No. 40/65.

52 See KNA BB/1/158, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Reports for May 1965.

53 KNA DC/Mandera (MDA)/7/3, P. G. P. D. Fullerton, ‘A note on the Somali border’, 25 Oct. 1960.

54 KNA PC/Garissa (GRSSA)/3/21/9, Wajir District Monthly Report for Dec. 1965; BB/1/158, Weekly Intelligence Report No. 52/65, and No. 2/66.

55 KNA BB/1/158, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Report No. 4/66 and No. 7/66.

56 See KNA BB/1/158, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Reports for the period 21 Dec. 1965 to 16 May 1966.

57 From late 1963 and continuing through 1964, ambushes of police convoys and attacks on police posts were a weekly occurrence in Mandera. See KNA BB/1/156, BB/1/157, and BB/1/158, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Reports.

58 KNA BB/1/158, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Reports Nos. 37/65 to 20/66.

59 In April and September of 1953, March, April, and May of 1954, and June and October of 1960, Degodia-Gurreh friction was reported. See KNA DC/GRSSA/18/13, Mandera District Monthly Reports, Apr. 1953, Sep. 1963, Mar. 1954, Apr. 1954, and May 1954; PC/GRSSA/3/1/20, Mandera District Monthly Reports, Jun. and Oct. 1960.

60 KNA BB/1/158, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Reports Nos. 37/65 to 20/66.

61 See Dalleo, ‘Trade’, 32.

62 During early 1963, a flurry of correspondence passed between district offices in Garissa, Wajir, and Isiolo regarding Abd Wak and Aulihan gangs that were sweeping through Isiolo. This was considered problematic as it threatened to depasture Garba Tulla and Madogashe. See KNA DC/ISO/4/7/6, District Commissioner Garissa to District Commissioner Isiolo, Telegram No. NP6/12, 19 Apr. 1963; KNA DC/ISO/4/7/7, Regional Government Agent Isiolo to Regional Government Agent Wajir, Reference No. L&O.17/32/51, 17 Aug. 1963.

63 See KNA BB/1/156, BB/1/157, and BB/1/158, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Reports between 1963–1966.

64 KNA DC/ISO/4/1/13, Isiolo District Monthly Report for Jul. 1963; KNA DC/ISO/4/7/7, District Commissioner Isiolo to District Commissioner Wajir, Reference No. LO.17/32/69, 24 Mar. 1966; Interview with Tari Bule, Isiolo, 5 Oct. 2008.

65 See KNA BB/1/156, BB/1/157, and BB/1/158, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Reports between 1963–1966.

66 See KNA BB/1/158, Special Branch Weekly Intelligence Reports Nos. 19/65 to 19/66.

67 Interview with Herkena Bulyar, Marsabit, 1 Oct. 2008.

68 Interview with Guyo Boru, Marsabit, 29 Sept. 2008.

69 KNA PC/GRSSA/3/1/12, Marsabit District Monthly Report for Aug. 1960.

70 Interview with Guyo Boru; Interview with Malich Roba, Marsabit, 1 Oct. 2008.

71 Interview with Herkena Bulyar.

72 Interview with Guyo Boru. The argument is also supported by evidence from an interview with Abdul Wario, Marsabit, 1 Oct. 2008.

73 For a summary of the three-pronged policy strategy, see NA DO 226/3, Kenya High Commission Report, Nairobi, 6 May 1964.

74 The trajectory of relations between Kenya and the Somali Republic over the NFD issue during the period 1963–8 are detailed by Adar and Mburu. See Adar, Kenyan, chs. 3 and 4; Mburu, Bandits, ch. 7.

75 Adar, Kenyan, 116; Mburu, Bandits, 185.

76 Adar, Kenyan, 117.

77 Ibid. 118.

78 Ibid.

79 Interviews with Fugich Dabassa, Abdub Galgallo, and Dahir Hajj.

80 Interviews with Jillo Golicha, Wario Tadicha, and Bashir Dere; Interview with Guyo Galgallo, Garba Tulla, 24 Dec. 2008; Interview with Faisal Abdikadir, Garissa, 16 Dec. 2008; Interview with Ayub Abdullahi, Marsabit, 2 Oct. 2008.

81 Interview with Farah Mohamed.

82 Interview with Iftin Hussein.

83 NA Dominions Office (DO) 213/32, The Preservation of Public Security Act, Public Security (North-Eastern Region) Regulations, 1963, 27 Dec. 1963.

84 NA DO 213/32, Preservation of Public Security Act, The Public Security (North-Eastern Region and Contiguous Districts) Regulations, 1 Sep. 1964.

85 KNA BB/12/49, ‘Aide memoir: shifta operations’, 16 Jun. 1966.

86 KNA BB/12/49, Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President to Provincial Commissioners Eastern Province, North Eastern Province, and Coast Province, Reference GEN.390/365/06/1A, 24 Jun. 1966. For details of the villagisation programme see Whittaker, H., ‘Forced villagization during the shifta conflict in Kenya, c. 1963–8’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 45:3 (forthcoming, 2012)Google Scholar.

87 For details of the British anti-Mau Mau campaign, see Anderson, D., Histories of the Hanged: Britain's The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire (London, 2005)Google Scholar; Elkins, C., Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya (New York, 2005)Google Scholar.

88 Branch makes this point in Kenya, 33.

89 Hansard, Republic of Kenya: House of Representatives Official Volume II, 13 December 1963–18 March 1964, (Nairobi, 26 Feb. 1964), Cols. 142–84.

90 For example see KNA BB/12/26, Isiolo to Marsabit and Moyale, Ref. EN22/11, 11 Dec. 1963.

91 KNA PC/GRS/3/7/9, Regional Government Agent to Civil Secretary NER, Ref. L&O.17/14/1/Vol. I/24, 28 Jul. 1964.

92 KNA BB/12/49, Provincial Commissioner NER to District Commissioners Garissa, Mandera, and Wajir, Ref. B.61/11/(96), 9 Feb. 1967.

93 KNA BB/12/50, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Marsabit to Regional Commissioner of Police, Eastern Region, 20 Jun. 1963.

94 A substantial scholarship has argued that independent Kenya did not effect a major ideological or structural break with the colonial state: see for example W. R. Ochieng’ and E. S. Atieno-Odhiambo, ‘On Decolonization’, in Ogot and Ochieng’ (eds.), Decolonization, xiii.

95 Mburu, Bandits, 53.

96 Ibid. 59.

97 See KNA DC/ISO/24/3 for enquiry cases.

98 For example on 5 February 1967, a Kenya army foot patrol seized over fifty head of cattle and 1,047 sheep and goats that were being grazed in a non-specified area of Garissa. See KNA PC/GRSSA/3/24/8, Garissa to Nairobi, Ref. A.161/Vol. I/73/67, 10 Feb. 1967; KNA DC/ISO/4/7/14, File reference A.161/B/428/67, 28 Mar. 1967.

99 D. M. Anderson, ‘Rehabilitation, resettlement, and restocking: ideology and practice in pastoralist development’, in D. M. Anderson and V. Broch-Due (eds.), The Poor Are Not Us: Poverty and Pastoralism (Oxford, 1999), 245.

100 Interview with Abdo Barre. This memory is also recounted in numerous statements given to the Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission, when it visited North Eastern and Upper Eastern Regions (formally part of the NFD) during April and May 2011. See Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC), NEP Special Pull-out (Nairobi, August 2011), (http://www.tjrckenya.org/images/documents/NEP-pullout-22.pdf).

101 This was a common sentiment expressed to me by the informants of this research. The accusation was repeated to the Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission, by a former Council Chairman of Garissa, Dubat Ali Amey in April 2011. He stated that because of government action during the 1960s, ‘the state pushed the area and its residents into destitution…animals were confiscated and their meat ferried to the Kenya Meat Commission’. TJRC, NEP, 3.

102 Hogg, R., ‘The new pastoralism: poverty and dependency in northern Kenya’, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 56:3 (1986), 319–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

103 A trend in movement towards urban areas was first reported during 1968 in Isiolo and Wajir districts. KNA DC/ISO/4/1/13, Isiolo District Monthly Report for Aug. 1968; KNA PC/GRSSA/3/21/9, Wajir District Monthly Report for Sep. 1968.

104 Interview with Faisal Abdikadir; Interview with Edin Mursal, Garissa, 18 Dec. 2008.

105 Interview with Darmi Omar and Sallo Ramata, Garba Tulla, 24 Dec. 2008; Interviews with Guyo Galgallo, Adan Banchalle, Fugich Dabassa, and Bashir Dere.

106 Doornbos, M., ‘The African state in academic debate: retrospect and prospect’, Journal of Modern African Studies, 28:2 (1990), 181CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

107 Branch, Kenya, 18.

108 The Regulations were repealed under Legal Notice No. 540, 29 Nov. 1991. Repeal of the regulations also coincided with the introduction of multi-party politics in Kenya, and can therefore be seen as a political ploy by the government to win political support from northern Kenyans in the face of impending elections. See M'Inoti, K., ‘Beyond the “emergency” in the North Eastern Province: an analysis of the use and abuse of emergency powers’, The Nairobi Law Monthly, 41 (1992), 37–43Google Scholar.

109 Kenya Gazette Supplement No.7 (Bills No. 2), The Indemnity (Repeal) Bill, 2010, 12 Feb. 2010.