Motive of Marines in NEP is suspect

[Liqaye]

North-Eastern Province is the third largest province yet the poorest because of marginalisation. The people are dirt poor and will accept any form of humanitarian aid. There is no single tarmac road in the region. The roads are impassable during rainy seasons; health facilities are limited; the few schools lack facilities, and insecurity is common. They are a people traumatised by bad Government policies, injustices and poor representation. They have learnt not to trust the Government. Visit El-Danaba in Wajir North, you will find about 15,000 people displaced by the Government and rendered internal refugees living in makeshift camps for the past five years. They are threatened by starvation and diseases and resettlement has remained a distant dream. Such people are not likely to choose which aid to accept and which to reject. They are people on the edge. However, there are many non-governmental organisations providing some health services, food and drilling boreholes. Some of these organisations are from the West — GTZ of Germany, Danida from Denmark, ADRA from Maryland, USA, Sida from Sweden, Oxfam from Britain, the Red Cross Society, Care International from Canada, and others from the Middle East. One aid worker Anallina Tonelli was recently murdered in Somalia. She will always be remembered in Wajir for her selfless service. Therefore, one wonders why the Americans had to send Marines to distribute medicine in the province. Why not use the American Red Cross or the Adventist Relief Development Agency to do the same? Why not donate medicine through these NGOs? These questions make their motive suspect. They caused a riot in Garissa and were rejected in Wajir. If the Marines were there to tarmac Garissa-Mandera road, the crisis could have been averted. Perhaps American policy makers needed to study the region’s history before embarking on their mission — whatever the motive. The people have been victims of several massacres — Malka Mari, Wagalla, Garissa and the latest El-Danaba. They have suffered under two decades of emergency laws and discrimination. It is therefore not surprising that men in uniform are perceived as enemies or a threat even when they are only armed with medicine. The American policy makers were either insensitive in their humanitarian deployment or they have other motives. Conspiracy theories abound that the Americans want to use the region as a front on their global war against terrorism. The people here are predominantly Muslim and they are targets in the war against terrorism. The people are generally peaceful, though overwhelmed by ignorance, poverty, diseases and injustice. But they are not players on either side of the terrorism war. Other than becoming victims of the war on terrorism, the rape cases against British forces who were in Kenya on training is a case in point which we do not want revisited on a people traumatised by victimisation. There are also the allegations of foreign security agents torturing our people at the Coast. The Suppression of Terrorism Bill 2003 still pending in Parliament is modelled on the American Patriot Act. Once passed — and I hope it is not— the law is likely to take away some of our civil liberties. The Bill gives immense powers to security agents to victimise civilians without recourse to the due process. The people of NEP see a connection in all this and a repeat of what may be worse than the emergency laws. The current crisis in the province, provoked by the presence of American Marines providing medical aid, can be blamed on the Government.

 

By Abukah Muhammed

www.garissa.net