MOYALE FALLS IN THE HANDS OF KDF. RELATIVE CALM Although relative calm has returned to Moyale in Marsabit County after days of fighting, the problem is far from over as the conflict between two protagonist communities is yet to be addressed. The Borana-Gabra conflict can be traced from the late ‘90s even though it came into the limelight in 2004. This is the time that the two communities started attacking each other with fatal results. But the strained relations between them started to build up in 1998 when North Horr MP, the late Dr Bonaya Godana, was appointed Foreign Affairs minister during the Kanu regime. Dr Godana was appointed to the position when the country had launched a campaign to help the Ethiopian government get rid of Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebels who it claimed had their hideout in Kenya. OLF had waged war against the Ethiopian Government since 1992 after the Marxist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam was overthrown. The rebels would launch an offensive in their country before crossing the border into Kenya where they had established hideouts among relatives. OLF is an outfit that champions the interests of Oromo speakers who inhabit southern Ethiopia. Both the Boranas and Gabras are also Oromo speakers. So, the Gabras were seen as betrayers of the greater Oromo community when their MP, Dr Godana, joined forces with the Kenyan Government to flush out the insurgents from the country. The rebels had established their hideouts in Sololo area of Moyale sub-county and also moved freely in the upper former Eastern Province region that stretches from Isiolo to Moyale. As the country continued with the campaign to flush out the OLF rebels from their dens, several Gabras were also uprooted from their homes in Ethiopia. Some still live at a refugee camp in Dukana area of Chalbi sub-county in Marsabit. The strained relations between the two communities intensified after Borana leaders started accusing Dr Godana of favouring his community in employment opportunities. The Gabra, who are described by the late Fr Tablino is his book, The Gabra: Camel Nomads of Northern Kenya, as former slaves of the Boranas, are a very small community. While Boranas are a majority community in southern Ethiopia, the Gabra population is considered insignificant. Yet, as Borana leaders led by the late Saku MP Abdi Tari Sassura used to complain, the community had taken over most of the employment opportunities in Marsabit County. Together with former MPs, Guracha Galgalo (Moyale) and Titus Ngoyoni (Laisamis), the lawmakers used to accuse their North Horr counterpart of tribalism and nepotism in allocations of both government and NGO jobs in Marsabit. MARSABIT PLANE CRASH Their differences were blamed for the skirmishes that rocked the region in 2005 and early 2006, but since they died in what came to be known as the Marsabit plane crash, the conflict came to an end. The four MPs were flying to Marsabit for a peace mission aboard a Kenya Air Force aircraft that crashed at Kofia Mbaya near Marsabit Town on April 10, 2006. Several other government officials including the late Internal Security assistant minister Mirugi Kariuki also perished in the crash. However, the argument advanced by Gabras is, like Dr Godana, most of them had acquired education with the assistance of Catholic missionaries who since the ‘60s had been converting them into Christianity. The missionaries established schools for the Gabras who mainly occupy Chalbi Desert. That is how they managed to access education.
Posted on: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 08:21:34 +0000
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