Clerics & Leaders Call for The Ouster of NEP PC

Religious leaders and elders from Garissa county yesterday demanded the transfer of the Northeastern PC James Ole Serian who they accuse of instigating inter-clan conflicts.
"The PC has consistently used his office to frustrate communities in Garissa. He has allowed influential personalities to grab land in the town knowing very well how sensitive the land issue is in this county.
It is for this reason that we are calling on the president through his internal security minister and provincial administration George Saitoti to act fast before we lose more lives, "said Daadab district peace chairman Osman Ibrahim on behalf of the Aulian clan elders.
Their statement comes just a few days after Prime Minister Raila Odinga ordered investigations into the PCs conduct following a spate of inter clan clashes in Garissa County.
The PM was reacting to a letter by Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim who accuses the PC of compromising the security of the Province by facilitating land grabbing.
The over 50 elders and religious leaders drawn from Garissa county demanded the immediate sacking of the administrator whom they accused of laxity.
Late last year there was full-scale confrontation in Garissa town between two clans that left six people dead in the presence of security apparatus.
The claims came a week after land clashes rocked Garissa town and left two people dead and several injured including a peace committee chairman Dakane Karur.
Efforts to reach the PC to respond to the allegations leveled against him proved futile as calls on his phone went unanswered.

 This is a report by The Nairobi Star's Stephen Astariko

Clan Land Clashes Leave Two Dead in Garisssa

This is heartbreaking, pathetic and sad. It's a set back for all those who are working tirelessly to rebuild our society and a huge win for the forces of darkness that try to separate us for profit and political gain.

Garissa, Meet Ahmed Nadhir Omar!

 I don't care much for the numerous pin-heads throwing their hats into the Senatorial and Gubernatorial races coming up in Garissa. Many of them strike me as vintage politicos, by which I mean they resemble the kind of candidates fronted by 'macawis' clad old men whose loyalties are readily available to the highest bidder.

Its no secret our current political discourse is pervaded by insufficiently intelligent old men committed to the traditional clanism paradigm. These men offer nothing but run-of-the-mill destructive politics and policy.

So as is clear to everyone but the alligator residents of the Tana River , our county needs change and a clear break with its personality (and clan) based politics. Conventional candidates in unconventional times is not what we need.

This is where young and previously untested candidates come in. Ahmed Nadhir Omar is a Gubernatorial candidate with impressive credentials. Listen to a speech he gave to a gathering of Garissians and make up your own mind about him. The videography is lame and the delivery was less than stellar but such are the pressures on those unfamiliar with public speaking.

The speech comes across as a brass-eared political consultant's idea of what the disengaged voters of  Garissa want to hear. Despite its generic and diagnostic nature, I was (mildly) impressed.



Note: I understand any mention of a particular candidate on this blog might be misconstrued as an endorsement or even a plug, so let me go out on a limp and categorically state that in this case it's not. Until we know more about this candidate and his plans for action, I will hold my cards close to my chest.

Breaking News: Several Injured in Clashes around Animal Market

  Several casualties were admitted to the Garissa Provincial General Hospital following clashes that took place in bulla Medina. Police are combing the neighborhood looking for suspects and urging calm.

A number of residents from the area whom I've contacted in the past 20 minutes have given me conflicting reasons and storylines. I don't tread lightly into conjecture about this sort of tragedy, but speculation is, the clashes were land and clan related.

We'll update you if and when we learn of any new developments. You can send us tips at garissacity@yahoo.com or  http://facebook.com/GarissaCity

Of Sh. Mustafa, The Deficit of Leadership, Misplaced Priorities & The Makhraj (Solution)

 Two weeks ago I wrote a piece for the blog on Clerics that went down well with majority of the readers but drew the ire of a few of those who trade in cheap "holier- than-thou' monologues. Basically I elucidated my opinion that within the sparkly bubble that is our so called guardians (read clerics) reside individuals of questionable moral and intellectual capacity.  Their pontifications should be subject to rigorous questioning and cynicism. To get the best results out of our leadership, secular or religious, we should not never rely purely on their human good will. Also to succeed as a society we should never suppress debate and the free exchange of high brow opinions. I have no desire to tread in carefully scripted socially correct platitudes . I also don't wish to be popular since I don't fancy selling my soul. My hope is to illicit a strong reaction from my readers so that we can all begin to question the fundamentals our society is based on.

 Among the respondents to my earlier post was an individual who called my Opining "Kufr and blasphemous." This Bifwoli-esque individual also insisted that I "delete the post since it was abusing our Lord!" Capital letters and all. Unfortunately this sort of the cuff verbal hemorrhage is pervasive in our society anytime controversial issues such as clanism, bad leadership and the role of clerics in the perennial failure of Garissa to catch up with other kenyan cities come up. If we are to see any tangible difference in our lives Post 2012, such misplaced sensitivities have to replaced with visionary thinking that will free us from the doldrums of the status quo. This will boil down to the sort of leadership we chose. But the question of who is a good leader is an inherently difficult one to answer. How much of a leaders decisions should be informed by pragmatism and how much should be swayed by religious puritanism? These sort of questions will be integral to the debate once power is devolved to ethnically and religiously homogeneous counties. There will be jostling for power between religious leaders and those we elect (our clansmen). I have no answer to these questions but luckily for us, Sh. Mustafa, (may Allah bless him) has. In a very enlightened lecture, he goes where none of todays (somali) sheikhs have ever gone and by the way, I follow the lectures of almost all the famous somali ulamaa regularly so I'm not making that statement lightly.

Please listen to it if you have the time it will be 90 minutes spent well.
                                                                                                                                         -A. Ainy

Rejoinder to Clerics Vs Young Guns

Greetings to all my blog readers and well wishers,
This is not an entry I was planning on writing but I have been forced to after several unflattering e-mails and the numerous "need-to-talk-to-you" calls I have received since writing the previous one.
First, let it be understood that I'm not writing these things to offend anyone. On the contrary, I do it so that we  can all help each other make sense of what the priorities for our city are. Would you prefer that no one challenge authority and our incipient civil discourse. Would you prefer that clanism and its role in the Pre-2012 political posturing be left 'undebated'?

There is no need to take an opponent's ideas to the very extreme and debate them as though they were the equivalent of "Colonial Northern Frontier District Policy" re-incarnate. Don't let your passions cloud your sense of good judgement and bar you from participating in a civil exchange of ideas grounded on respect and mutual want for our Garissa to be the Kenyan City of the 21st century.

Occasionally I came across some positive reaction to the now infamous entry that make me think as Garissians, we are on the right track. The circus that is the current debate on what the devolution of power (actually devolution of corruption) to local counties means for not only Garissa but the larger Nep is a definite reminder that we Kenyan Somalis have a long way to go. But things are starting to look better. For one, our inchoate civic movements and community activists are getting into the polemic clanism debate more vigorously and the youth are getting inundated with anti-clanism messages so that they don't get pulled into a vortex of political supremacy battles.

The Ulamaa need to use their bully pulpits to promote these implacable advances in eradicating clanism in our region. I am not an Ulamaa basher, never been, never will be but I'll point out when their priorities are misplaced. I want our religious leaders to be more proactive when it comes to holding our elected leaders to account. I'll stand by those who stick their necks out to defend the common person's interest. Lets remember in 2007, Farah Maalim rode to power because of the endorsement (rightly or wrongly) of Eastleigh's Sheikhs. Certainly, the public has a right to demand that the same sheikhs hold Mr. Farah accountable for his actions or inactions. Religious leaders can be a force for far greater good if they choose to use their power and deploy it in areas such as the eradication of drug abuse, clanism and corruption. We Somalis are a religious lot and our ulamaa can root out these problems if they pay attention to them.
Finally on the issue of vices; Clubs, Khat and other hard or soft drugs are bigger evils and pose a bigger threat to our culture and religion that any "un-Islamic" comedy sketches from teenage comics.

PS: For those that had a beef with the picture on the previous post, it was just too charming to not use.

Peace & Love all.

NTV Takes on Clanism in Garissa

They say no media  is bad media, so going by that philosophy, the people of Garissa should be happy that an anti-clanism message is sort of taking root in our city and in the larger NEP region. However, What irked me the most about the video is the selective editing of images to just snapshots of the cities in-glorified places. They filmed masjid ibnul Qayyim but were unwilling to show the highrises that are just opposite to it. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but you can't say my visceral reaction is misplaced given the media's interest in trying to make sweeping negative statements about our region and people.

Here is the video:

Underselling the future for a few acres of land

   Who would have thought that in 2010, after years of watching Somalia disintegrate , Garissa's people would resurrect the tribalist cranks in their ranks, the descendants of Aideed and Abdullahi Yussuf. Historians will look back on this era as a time of temporary insanity brought about by lack of leadership and a failure of civil activists. The Ulamaa  have underperformed in marking their niche in society and using their bully pulpits for the propagation of God's message of peace, love and harmony. This might seem like another one of those depressing human habits of placing blame where it does not belong but upon a close review you'll find out all the aforementioned players have failed in their respective duties. At a time of boom for our city it will be a gross underselling of our future for a regression into a painful and a dark past.

  Lets join our hands together as one and give up on tribalism for the promise of a brighter future. This city is destined for greatness so lets not lose sight of the future for the pleasures of a few acres of barren and  an unproductive land.

 We the youth should be the architects of this century. Lets refused to used by illiterate men whose self esteem is derived from their tribe. We are the generation that has the solutions to all our problems. Stop delegating your powers to men who see no use in life other than playing the tribe card.
 LETS CHANGE OUR CITY, LETS CHANGE THE WORLD!

The Problem With NEP

By  Aden Sh-abdullahi Yunis 

We have spent the last 45 years blaming politicians and lamenting about marginalization without addressing the root causes or debating the possible solutions. We have consistently elected the same breed of politicians while the province sank deeper and deeper into political, economic and social miseries. The province is so predictable that we would trail in sports, drama, science congress competition and even in population census. These pathetic scenarios are exaggerated by natural calamities such as heat, low rainfalls and rugged terrains. 

In the education sector, the three old districts (include the newly created)compete at the bottom during KCPE and KCSE results. These is because the performances of our children are being doctored by among others the absence of teachers and teaching aids. Over the years, We have learnt that Kenya's leading student's trail behind our children once they attend same classes in public universities. (No malice intended) 

Healthcare is a nightmare that beats all logics. Dispensaries are either non-existent or ill-equiped, unmanned and so dispersed that basic treatable diseases are the leading cause of death in NEP. Awareness is a non-existent luxury and you can guess the fate of a heart attack patient in a province where burials are conducted within minutes of death.... See More 

There are no reasons why tarmac roads are extended to all the country's border points except North Eastern province. This is a deliberate economic sabotage. It is a folly that tarmac roads are extended to Mombasa, Namanga, Narok, Busia, Lokichoggio and not in the easier terrains of Nep. We are the only solutions to our problems. We have the rights to publicise these issues or tolerate the words silently.I beleive Nep is capable of reaching greater goals. 

We can strenghthen our politicians by setting goals and holding them accountable, by making sure both constituents and politicians appreciate the power of the vote. We can differ on issues and personalities but we will always have common interests and middle grounds. We can bet that all interested parties would prefer better infrastructure, more hospitals and educational institutions, lower taxes and a constitution that gives power back to the people. To achieve these goals, we should encourage a communal approach to the challenges, add up ideas soberly and set the foundation for a better, well administered, politically mature North Eastern province. 

The challenges facing the province today can be solved by awareness campaigns. Some might require time and effort from our generation for the betterment of our successors. CONSIDER THESE QUESTIONS: 

Why do NEP residents go to the police instead of the courts when someone is arrested?
Why do we pay fines that are not court-ordered and without receipts? 
Why do we break in ululations when a District commissioner promises to address power outages 
Why shouldn't the KPLC boss do his job? 
If NEP records the lowest crime every year, Why are we leading in police arrests? 
Why is it that only 2% of those arrested reach the court? 
Why are our MPs inaccessible after elections? 
Can our Gov't afford a tarmac road from Isiolo to Moyale(Eastern)? Hulugho to Mandera? 
Can we afford one public university in Nep? JUST ONE! 
Why is media-coverage restricted in Nep and why do we have to buy papers that do not cover our pleas? 

A college degree and finding a middle class job in the city will not change Nep. Our elites must be politically active and negotiate for each vote that the Gov't gets from Nep. We should create pressure groups to keep MPs on the run and deny them a chance to sleep in parliament. Peaceful masses should camp at parliamentarians doors in the wee hours of the morning! What do you think?