ogaden population in kenya

), total: 674,191 (2020 est. Interview with Mzee Jamal, November 2010. When I met him in Nakuru, he lived with his two brothers. In the violence following the elections 2007, he was almost killed in a targeted attack, which he blamed on economic competition based on ethnic categorization. Remembering the Ogaden War 45 Years Later: Four and a Half Lessons Nairobi Development and the Somali Question in Kenya, c. 191517. See Balaton-Chrimes, Counting as Citizen.. Kenyans has humiliated our people in Kenya. Turton, The Isaq Somali Diaspora, 327. Ethnicity is a highly relevant category for political discussions and practices in Kenya, not only during elections, but also, for example, for the allocation of positions in the public sector. Kenya Population Census 1962, 34-5. )wine: 0.04 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est. The cruelty with which the sexual violence is committed by Ethiopian army in Ogaden defies all description and that goes far beyond rape according to the testimonies recently collected from the Ogaden refugees in Kenya. Not only the Kenyan secular system is therefore creating bonds, but also religious education taking place within the country. It is Kenya that does not want Somalis in Kenya.Footnote10, Even in colonial times, the Somali population of British East Africa was treated differently from other inhabitants. 113. We use cookies to improve your website experience. I either refer to the name used during the respective period or use the geographical term northeastern region. )subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: (2021 est.) )exports: 0 metric tons (2020 est. In the multi-ethnic state of Kenya, many are subjected to this ambiguous citizenship: Asians, white Kenyans, Nubians, or Arabs. This was mainly the result of the shifta conflict of 1963 to 1967, in which inhabitants of the Northern Frontier District attempted to secede from Kenya. )106.451 (2020 est. These gray spaces develop through the interaction of different actors, many of them non-Somali Kenyan politicians, but as well Somali elites, who use their position to shake off competitors. This paper deals with the way the politics of belonging have been enacted in Kenya in the last decade and what this has meant for Kenyan Somalis. Yet devolution also led to new power struggles. Mohammed, from the Dhadhaab (or Dadaab) camp in Kenya, described to Ogaden Online (OO) 1/12/2012 how he was captured by the Ethiopian military, accused of being a supporter of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and mercilessly tortured. )$9.116 billion (31 December 2019 est. 74. Their positioning in a gray space within Kenyan society, leaves them neither integrated nor eliminated, forming pseudo-permanent margins.Footnote9 What impact the new urgency to form a more united Kenyan nation, following the post-election violence in 20072008, has on its Somali population is discussed below. ), revenues: $16.885 billion (2019 est. 85. Amina, a young woman in her early 20s, was born in Nakuru. )municipal solid waste recycled annually: 447,608 tons (2009 est. Nobody questions the connection of Kenyan Somalis to the soil of the northeastern region, where most of them live: what is disputed is the question of whether or not this makes them Kenyan. Cheeseman et al., Decentralisation in Kenya, 3. 3. )$4,600 (2019 est. ), 54.2% of GDP (2017 est. In 2013 it was merged with the Ministry of Devolution and Planning. Fifty years of abuse and neglect is too long to endure. Firstly, politicians demanded the closure of the refugee camps near the Somali border.Footnote72 Developments indicate that, this time, the Kenyan government seriously intends to shut down the refugee camp complex of Dadaab, despite a High Court ruling denouncing the planned closure as unconstitutional.Footnote73 Secondly, there were crackdowns on Somalian refugees living outside the camps. 108. By closing this message, you are consenting to our use of cookies. Even though Kenyan Somalis have been treated as ambiguous citizens since independence, the question for many of them is not so much if they belong to Kenya, but rather how. Meanwhile, the situation in neighbouring Somalia worsened, starting with the Ogaden war (1977-1978). In 1890, Germany and the UK divided up the region, with the UK taking the north and the Germans the south, including present-day Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda. 100. In the last decade, the government has slowly become more attentive to this region, for instance by the establishment of a Ministry of Northern Kenya and other Arid Areas in 2008.Footnote35 In addition, in 2009, the LAPSSET (Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport) project was announced, aiming at the creation of a infrastructure network linking the northern regions to central Kenya and therefore ideally becoming a means through which northerners could be drawn into the nation proper.Footnote36, The immigration of Somalian refugees enabled more contacts between Kenyan Somalis and Somalians, yet it also led Kenyan Somalis to realign questions of Kenyanness and belonging. Why the results of Somali elections are crucial for the region - Aljazeera Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard), Parliamentary Debates, July 14, 1999, p. 1327 and October 24, 2001, p. 2713. In the colonial classification, urbanized alien Somalis neither counted as European, nor as truly Asian or as clearly African, but as something in between, not fitting the categories. 44. On the massacre see also TJRC, Final Report 2A, 221367, and Sheikh, Blood on the Runway. People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read. )subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 123 (2021 est. Although 80% of Kenya is Christian, its Muslim populationwhich accounts for about 9-10% of the populationis largely concentrated on its eastern coast as well as on the border with Somalia. ), lowest 10%: 1.8%highest 10%: 37.8% (2005), 3.42% of GDP (2021 est. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. 105. Visit the Definitions and Notes page to view a description of each topic. )beer: 0.81 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est. The Ogaden is a plateau, with an elevation above sea level that ranges from 1,500 metres in the northwest, falling to about 300 metres along the southern limits and the Wabi Shebelle valley. This term can be seen as a derivation from a Somali greeting (Carrier, Little Mogadishu, 81), but also as originating from the english term warrior in contiuation with colonial representations (Abdi, Accidental Citizens, 27). Meanwhile, the situation in neighbouring Somalia worsened, starting with the Ogaden war (19771978). 23. Both of his parents come from families urbanized during colonial times. A prominent figure of the Muslim Association of Nakuru, for instance, spoke about our Somalis as opposed to Somalis when talking about conflicts in the Muslim community (interviewed September 2012). Ogden is currently growing at a rate of 0.08% annually and its population has increased by 0.25% since the most recent census, which recorded a population of 86,726 in 2020. 8. Many Kenyan Somalis are tired of these improvised solutions and want to be treated as any other Kenyan.Footnote47 Furthermore, as the ID is associated with citizenship, lack of ID means that, in the eyes of the majority, those without do not belong.Footnote48. Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between Somalia and Tanzania, total: 580,367 sq kmland: 569,140 sq kmwater: 11,227 sq km, five times the size of Ohio; slightly more than twice the size of Nevada, total: 3,457 kmborder countries (5): Ethiopia 867 km; Somalia 684 km; South Sudan 317 km; Tanzania 775 km; Uganda 814 km, territorial sea: 12 nmexclusive economic zone: 200 nmcontinental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation, varies from tropical along coast to arid in interior, low plains rise to central highlands bisected by Great Rift Valley; fertile plateau in west, highest point: Mount Kenya 5,199 mlowest point: Indian Ocean 0 mmean elevation: 762 m, limestone, soda ash, salt, gemstones, fluorspar, zinc, diatomite, gypsum, wildlife, hydropower, agricultural land: 48.1% (2018 est. around Kismayo) are much more exposed to Al Shabaab than the others. Starting with the elections in 2013 there has been a roll-back of reforms adopted after the post-election violence of 20072008,Footnote79 often under the rubric of securitization. the song Narudi nyumbani/coming home by Nameless, written in 2010 as a tribute to Kenyan sportspeople who represent (their) nation), advertisements (such as Niko na Safaricom/I have Safaricom, a mobile network operator in Kenya) and TV shows.Footnote43 Furthermore, the idea was at the core of civil society initiatives. ), $4,700 (2021 est. Between 2017 and 2023, the population needing humanitarian assistance in parts of Eastern Africa rose from 22.5 million to 68 million and, as reported in the financial tracking systems of the United Nation Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affair- UN-OCHA, the cost of humanitarian assistance doubled from US$4.1 billion to US$9.4 billion. ), Kenyan shillings (KES) per US dollar -109.638 (2021 est. )3.09% of GDP (2020 est. Their perception of religious, economic and political marginalization partly derives from the feeling of lost power, which emerged with colonialism and intensified after independence. Amina dresses like any other urban (Muslim) girl in Kenya, she typically wears Somali attire (often hiding her Arsenal shirt underneath) and a Kenyan bracelet. Population and demographic of Mandera County: Garissa counry is 620,000 whereas Wajeer county is 660,000. Formula Narratives and the Making of Social Stratification and Inequality, The Ogaden and the Fragility of Somali Segmentary Nationalism, Killing a Mosquito with a Hammer: Al-Shabaab Violence and State Security Responses in Kenya, Between a Protracted and a Crisis Situation: Policy Responses to Somali Refugees in Kenya, Rendering Difference Visible: The Kenyan State and its Somali Citizens, Soil, Work, Civilisation, and Citizenship in Kenya, Autochthony and Family: The Politics of Kinship in White Kenyan Bids to Belong. 91. His family did not know that Abdullahi lived a very different life, going to clubs and only very rarely to the mosque. 5. Changes in identification over time are also indicated by the Afrobarometer data concerning ethnic versus national identification. UNPO: Ogaden - Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization 4.5% vs 7.1% 33.22million larger labor force? 110. By around the 9th century, the mix of Africans, Arabs, and Persians who lived and traded there became known as Swahili ("people of the coast") with a distinct language (KiSwahili) and culture. 21. Balaton-Chrimes, Counting as Citizens, 215. )$233.852 billion (2020 est. ), 5.325 million NAIROBI (capital), 1.440 million Mombassa (2023), at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female0-14 years: 1.01 male(s)/female15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/femaletotal population: 1 male(s)/female (2023 est. The system we have gone through, the schooling, brings people closer together, the way we understand things. (Kiswahili), Christian 85.5% (Protestant 33.4%, Catholic 20.6%, Evangelical 20.4%, African Instituted Churches 7%, other Christian 4.1%), Muslim 10.9%, other 1.8%, none 1.6%,don'tknow/no answer0.2% (2019 est.). Talking Peace in the Ogaden. Examples are Aden Duale, who became the Majority Leader of the National Assembly, Amina Mohammed Jibril, Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Adan Mohammed, Cabinet Secretary for Industrialization. My thanks go to James Carrier, David OKane, John Eidson and Keren Weitzberg for their fruitful comments and to Fatma A. Hassan for her help during fieldwork in Kenya. The biggest group of Somalis moving to the cities were therefore not refugees, but Kenyan Somalis whose migration resulted partly from the changing structures in the northeastern region. 81. The Ogadeen are the single largest Somali clan family in both Kenya and Ethiopia and are highly politically influential in both countries. Islam is also one of the elements dividing Kenyan Somalis from the Christian majority. This notion laid the basis for rendering all Kenyan Somalis as non-native Africans after independence.Footnote81 In the late 1990s and early 2000s Somali Members of Parliament spoke about a policy of apartheid and of biological nationalism.Footnote82 The only other group having such an in-between status are Nubians,Footnote83 who have to go through a similar vetting process when applying for national identification documents, which includes not only the presentation of numerous documents (such as parents birth certificates), but also the recognition by a chief to indeed belong to the local community.Footnote84, The racial component also plays out in the daily life of Kenyan Somalis. Aminas mother tries to support the family by running a textile shop in one of the Somali shopping centres, but money is always scarce. The British established the East Africa Protectorate in 1895, which in 1920 was converted into a colony and named Kenya after its highest mountain. The two countries went to war in 1888, but the conflict was ended by the . )103.41 (2017 est. )101.302 (2018 est. While she had never before mentioned Somalia, one day she told me that a friend of the family was stopping by more frequently in the last time and it seemed he just wanted to see her. 72. Menkaus, Conflict Assessment, 3839. Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). [8] In particular, the ONLF operates in Ogaden areas. Ogden is a city located in Weber County Utah.It is also the county seat of Weber County.With a 2023 population of 86,942, it is the 8th largest city in Utah and the 399th largest city in the United States. The Ogaden (Somali: Ogaadeen, Arabic: ) is a Somali clan, and one of the largest Darod subclans. For the first time it was possible to be counted as Kenyan, and about 600,000 people did so.Footnote50 In one letter to the Daily Nation, the author described himself as belonging to a group of urban detribalized or de-ethnicised Kenyans, growing up in neighbourhoods that are characterized by diversity and jamaa wa mtaa (family of the street): We may be a minority, but we represent the future.Footnote51 Furthermore, smaller ethnic groups tried to gain recognition by the state, which in the case of Nubians, for example, meant being finally accepted as Kenyans.Footnote52, The census count of Somali inhabitants of Kenya was also controversial. Many are in refugee camps in Kenya and Yemen, from where they recount stories of horrific abuse. The successful candidate must secure 25% of votes in more than half of the counties, turning northeastern counties into swing regions. His grandfather served as Sergeant in the colonial-era Kenya Police. They share this cleavage with other Kenyan Muslims, especially coastal Arabs and Swahili. 22. Eastern Africa - Abyssinia | Britannica )53.2% of GDP (2016 est. Kenyan Somalis played an increasing (yet still small) role in political administration, as they were seen as neutral, as not connected to one of the influential ethnic groups. The government was unable to respond adequately to the attacks. ), fossil fuels: 8.3% of total installed capacity (2020 est. The report argues . )other: 45.8% (2018 est. Whittaker, A New Model Village, 120. The first and biggest are the inhabitants of the northeastern region of Kenya, bordering Somalia and Ethiopia. When looking at those other groups Asians, Whites, Nubians or Arabs two main dimensions along which Kenyanness is constructed come into focus: a racial dimension and a cultural dimension. "Ambiguous citizens": Kenyan Somalis and the question of belonging As in many of the long-term urbanized Kenyan Somali families, Somali was not spoken frequently at home. The first part of the paper gives a short historical overview of the socio-political position of the Somali population of Kenya, while the second part deals with three of the states citizen-making instruments crucial over the last decade: the census of 2009, the elections of 2013, and the move towards securitization since 2013, following terrorist attacks on Kenyan soil. The British labelled Somalis coming from British Somaliland and Aden the Alien Somali,Footnote13 a term later frequently used to describe all urbanized Somalis, excluding them from the general definition of native.Footnote14 This categorization as non-native not only resulted from their intermediary status in the socio-economic hierarchy due to their service to the colonial state,Footnote15 but also from their own attempts to be treated as Asians, set apart from the African population.Footnote16, After independence, the Kenyan state continued to treat Somalis as not quite belonging to the state. 12. Our background is more or less the same. )2.83% of GDP (2019 est. 11 Mainly . Abdullahi left Nakuru immediately after recovering and started a new life in Nairobi. Who this term refers to, and if it means insider or outsider, depends on the circumstances.Footnote109 The diverse images of Somalis in Kenya, resulting from different historical trajectories, are aggregated in a meta-image of the ambiguous citizen. In addition, archival sources about the history of urban Somali presence were gathered. Somali Region - Wikipedia Ethiopia vs Kenya: What is the difference? Throughout the paper the term Somali is used when referring to the ethnic category, the term Somalian as a national category denotes people coming from Somalia. It was terrible, I became crazy. When applying for a passport Kenyan Somalis had to complete a special form for applicants claiming citizenshipwho do not belong to an African tribe indigenous to Kenya. Hansard (Parliamentary Debate), April 28 1994, House of Representatives Official Report 1 (22), Republic of Kenya, p. 579. At the same time, new trade routes emerged between Kenya and Somalia. Wiesmann, Kiteme and Mwangi, Socio-Economic Atlas, 122128. This argument was already raised in 1974 during a discussion about the motion Compulsary birth registration for Isiolo and Marsabit Somali (Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, May 17, 1974, p. 1408). . In the North Eastern Province, they had at least what is theirs. 17. The heterogeneous Somali population in Kenya can roughly be categorized into four groups. In Nakuru, I met several families neither registered with the UNHCR nor the Kenyan state. 15. The Ogaden War 1977-78 In Kenya, Mogadishu merely supported local armed groups to further its irredentist ambitions, but in Ethiopia, it launched a full-scale war. 29.6% vs 36.1% 2.22x higher real GDP growth rate? And when he talked about marginalization, Kenya was the point of reference, not Somalia. 52. 45. Talking from the current perspective an old man in Nakuru spoke about the early 1960s: In July [1960] Somalia was declared independent, in October I went there. But the Somali dwellers outside North Eastern Province were those who really suffered.Footnote20, Although the emergency regulations persisted until the early 1990s, the northeastern region and its inhabitants became gradually more included into the Kenyan state.Footnote21 After a foiled coup in 1982, President Moi incorporated Somali elites into his apparatus to secure his power base,Footnote22 enabling some of them to make a career in the state administration. Unlike Abdullahi, who always insisted on remaining in Kenya, both of his brothers now live in Europe. Kenya - The World Factbook - CIA Secondly, there are urbanized Somalis whose ancestors settled in the colonial towns.

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