wagalla massacre chronicles+premeditated genocide_the star

8/17/2019 Wagalla Massacre Chronicles+premeditated genocide_The Star

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Wagalla Massacre Chronicles

Part Two: A Premeditated act of Genocide

By Salah Abdi Sheikh

The official government reports available show that Wagalla Massacre was a military operation

gone wrong. According to a report prepared by Etemesi Committee, there was no clear

“operational order” given to the !nior commanders of the army and the police. The "istrict

#ec!rity Committee panic$ed and made terrible errors and the methods of interrogation they

!sed was !n!s!al and !nprofessional. The acting "C and the %C&" demonstrated clear lac$ of

leadership and tact and in their cowardice left the sit!ation to !nior Military and &olice officers.

Etemesi Committee reached one damning concl!sion that threw a spanner in the wor$s of all the

official tr!ths abo!t Wagalla Massacre. The "istrict #ec!rity Committee members were “to date

!nwilling to state the tr!th regarding the incident. The credibility of the officers is hence

do!btf!l”. "espite its damning concl!sion, there is one problem' Etemesi inevitably relied ondoctored reports and e(planations of those who perpetrated the massacre that the incident was as

res!lt of operation gone wrong. The more pla!sible e(planation is it was planned that way.

To !nderstand )enya*s policy towards #omalis of )enya, one m!st loo$ beyond the borders in

the politics of #omalia and Ethiopia. )enya and Ethiopia have a sec!rity pact that is intended to

p!t !p a defense against #omalia. +n all the massacres that too$ place in orth Eastern )enya,

there was instigation of some cross-border activity. When people were $illed in Mal$a Mari,

Ethiopian forces or militias had b!rned a )enyan military vehicle. )enya ended !p $illing its

own citiens beca!se of the policy of not differentiating #omalis wherever they may live. The

idea of “they all loo$ ali$e” e(ists to date. When /arissa town was b!rnt by the military in 0123,the idea was to fl!sh o!t one Abdi Mathobe who went to #omalia, armed himself and came bac$

for revenge. The #omalia connection to all the violations on #omalis of )enya was manifested in

the 0121 )enya #omali 4erification and 5egistration which led to mass deportation of #omalis

o!t of )enya. The idea behind this e(ercise was the notion that there were, according to "aniel

Arap Moi, 4ice-&resident of )enya in 0162, #omalis who have “sympathy with #omalia”. +t

too$ the )enya government eleven years to implement Moi*s 0162 directive.

Wagalla Massacre happened at confl!ence of three potent forces' #omali clan cha!vinism,

#omalia border instability and )enya*s s!spicion and s!b!gation of its #omali pop!lation. At

the time of Wagalla Massacre there was bitter conflict between "egodia and A!ran s!b-clans.The official story states that "egodia had become “aggressively hostile” and this phrase

“aggressively hostile” was !sed in the min!tes of C and "#C. The Ministerial #tatement given

in parliament chronicles aggressive action by "egodia s!b-clan against the A!ran s!b-clan. As

the hostilities between the two s!b-clans escalated, the government came in and as$ed both

gro!ps to s!rrender their arms. The Minister of #tate %ffice of the &resident, 7!ssein Maalim

visited Wair in "ecember, 0128 and gave each gro!p 03 days to bring in their g!ns and


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amm!nitions. 9y the end of the grace period “A!ran had complied b!t "egodians had shown

little response”. Etemesi report says a total twelve g!ns were s!rrendered by the two gro!ps,

with "egodia only s!rrendering one. The grace period was e(tended by 03 more days and this

time more g!ns were s!rrendered. A!ran s!rrendered :; and "egodia s!rrendered 2. This was

an arms race in reverse.

%fficial reports say instead of implementing the government directives, the "egodia started

migrating to nearby Mandera and /arissa "istricts. They were however stopped by the

respective "istrict #ec!rity Committees.

new angle which was pic$ed by the Etemesi 5eport. "egodia threatened to “assassinate senior

civil servants”. This partic!lar lang!age seems to pervade the whole official story' they had to

be $illed beca!se they were “aggressively hostile”, ref!sed to s!rrender more g!ns, migrated to

other districts and threatened to assassinate senior civil servants. This story was coo$ed !p to

loo$ li$e the government was protecting one gro!p of #omalis by $illing another gro!p

wantonly. The schism between #omali s!b-clans flared and ebbed since the time immemorial and

contin!es to date. +t is easy to po$e holes in this official narrative. The first gaping hole is how

many g!ns did each gro!p own= 7ow did the n!mber of g!ns s!rrendered become a meas!re of

compliance= Etemesi 5eport observes that the n!mber of g!ns s!rrendered sho!ld not have been

a yardstic$ of compliance or discrimination. #econd, the clan clashes were confined to /irift!

"ivision, why were "egodia clansmen abd!cted from Wair #o!th, Wair East, Moyale "istrict,

Mandera "istrict and /arissa "istrict= Why was Wair Town being b!rnt= Again Etemesi 5eport

as$s this pertinent >!estion. +t also observes that “b!rning of the aerials ?h!ts@ in 9!lla ogoo in

Wair Township was !n!stified and !ncalled for in view of the fact that the plots had been

officially allocated to the owners”. A close reading of the official story reveals a determined

effort to confo!nd everyone with tales of raging, armed and o!t of control tribal militiarampaging thro!gh the district.

There has always been the s!spicion among Wair residents that Wagalla Massacre was

engineered to tame an armed rebellion against a government rather than to >!ell tribal tension.

There was no armed rebellion against the )enya government in Wair in 012B in which the

"egodia s!b-clan played any role. There was however an armed rebellion against the

government of #omalia in which "egodia had a not so insignificant involvement. There was

#omalia ational Movement ?#M@, also $nown as iriria which apparently operated within five

miles of the )enyan border. A brief prepared for )enya +ntelligence Committee*s visit to orth

Eastern &rovince between 2 and 03


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#omalia*s involvement was given credence by claims made in parliament by Ahmed )halif in

March 012B after the massacre. According to a report that appeared in the Weekly Review of 08th

April 012B, a certain rebel gro!p had a camp five miles from the )enya border. The report

>!oting a senior orth Eastern politician claimed that there e(isted in the province an

!ndergro!nd political movement called iriria, which was responsible for the violence. The

politician claimed that iriria was an alliance of small tribal gro!pings bac$ed by a livestoc$

agency in airobi, which was !sing h!ge amo!nts of money to recr!it local people in p!rs!it of

“an event!al foreign obective”. After Wagalla Massacre these was the last reference ever made

to iriria*s e(istence in the province. +t is dropped from the official story li$e it never e(isted

thereafter.

The last potent force that may have played a catalyst role in Wagalla Massacre is the )enya

government*s official s!spicion of its #omali pop!lation. 9etween 0162 and 012B three

massacres occ!rred in the three districts of orth Eastern &rovince. +n Mandera district in 0162,

h!ndreds were $illed at Mal$a Marri when a )enyan military vehicle was allegedly b!rnt by an

Ethiopian militia. +n /arissa "istrict in 0123, half of the town was b!rnt, people m!rdered and

their bodies thrown into the river according to witnesses. There was a clear reference to /arissa

incident in the min!tes of the &rovincial #ec!rity Committee meetings where in his remar$s the

&C refers both military operations as “imprompt! sec!rity operations” and in the second

reference indicates “!dging from previo!s events in /arissa in 0123, the "#C Wair decided to

ro!nd-!p "egodia male ad!lts. The incidents in Mandera and /arissa were not as p!blicied as

Wagalla Massacre probably beca!se they were indiscriminate and the n!mbers involved were

fewer. 7owever, there was a pattern of the military r!nning rampage on the pop!lation and

massacring them at will.

The government e(planation that the massacre was a normal operation gone wrong falls flat

against evidence provided in its own reports. Wagalla Massacre was a premeditated genocide

targeting a small comm!nity identifiable by distinct ethnic reference and location. The primary

obective was mass m!rder and displacement, the first was achieved b!t the second obective

failed. According to the Wair "#C special meeting of 1 !est for moremanpower from their respective s!periors”. The min!tes of the "#C says nothing abo!t the

obectives other than to apprehend some $illers and does not mention Wagalla Airstrip or any

other holding place for the prisoners. The C meeting of 0B


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possession of illegal firearms, so that s!ch people can also be ro!nded !p and be made to

s!rrender illegal firearms”. Again the C omits the primary obective of the operation provided

by the "#C which p!rports to have ordered the operation. The C goes f!rther and says “The

only convenient and s!itable place to gather all those ro!nded !p was agreed to be at the Wair

civilian airstrip”. This detail was not provided at the beginning of the operations on 1


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“ "#C sho!ld do more homewor$, rather than base their case on her stand in the recent Wagalla

incident”

+n the end the perpetrators got a pat on the bac$ and are still living in the )enyan society

oblivio!s to the blood of the innocent victims on their hands. Wagalla Massacre remains stain on

the conscio!s of the )enya government, past, present and the f!t!re. Etemesi Committeerecommended that comm!nal p!nishment be s!spended, the li$es of abwire, Tiema and

M!dogo be given severe reprimand, transferred and dealt with departmentally and finally and

most importantly, "egodia*s confidence in government be restored. The committee

recommended, “The government*s immediate tas$ sho!ld be to try and restore the confidence of

the "egodias” and to wrap !p their recommendation they repeated the same line word for word

!st for emphasis. 8: years later, their recommendations still fly o!t of the page for any

government official interest eno!gh to read and implement.

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