My response to the article by Donald Kipkorir, in the Daily Nation of Kenya, called ‘Why Kenya and Ethiopia ought to annex and divide Somalia’. This article was published on Friday 3rd of October 2008.This particular article can be found by following the link:http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/476952/-/3lvt45/-/index.htmlThe ancient common law of the Somali people, despite its polycentric nature, has governed and regulated an ancient way of life on the Somali peninsula for well over a thousand years.
In addition to the unique and ancient customs of the Somali people, one must remember the Shari’a Islam, a sophisticated and robust form of jurisprudence practiced all over the Somali peninsula.The very idea of Kenyan strategic interest is based upon the assumption that the state of Kenya enjoys a degree of political and economic independence from the west. This is an erroneous assumption. It is quite clear, even to the most casual of observer, that the Kenya as an entity is a client state of the west. Therefore, the state of Kenya cannot be said to have definably strategic national interests that are, in any way, independent of western interests. This being the case, the dismemberment and annexation of Somalia can only be affected with the support and backing of the western powers.
Donald Kipkorir may choose to label certain Somali personalities as pirates, but it must be realised that the men in question call themselves the coastal guardians of Somalia. When considering the fact that Somalia has the longest coastline of all African nations, it is entirely reasonable that such a resource is guarded by a section of the Somali community. The practices, and exploits of the men who guard the national coast of Somalia are entirely legitimate, because the waters that these men protect are universally considered to be Somali national waters.There has never been so much as a single shred of evidence, presented anywhere in the world, to prove that the Somali national territory has ever been a haven for terrorists of any description. The idea that Somalia is a haven of terrorism is baseless in the extreme.
Furthermore, the tenuous nature of the perceived links between terrorism and people of who follow one religion in particular does not help anyone. On the other hand, the state of Kenya, due to the fact that the horrific events of 1998 happened in Nairobi, must be considered the classic example of a haven for terrorists. Surely a haven for terrorism is a place where terrorists are able to conduct their evil deeds without fear of detection or interception. Kenya has been such a place in the past, what is to say that Kenya is not such a place in the present?The state of Kenya does not represent an existential threat to any nation. And, the state of Kenya certainly does not represent an existential threat to any of the Arab nations. In addition to this, one must be mindful of the fact that Somalia is not an Arab nation by definition.
Donald Kipkorir, in surely a cheap and deliberate attempt to confuse, betrays his ignorance on more than one occasion in his article.The annexation of Somali national territory has been attempted in the past, by various invading armies, and on numerous occasions with little success. Land is the most sacred of material possessions for an agro-pastoral society like that of the Somali nation. Any attempt, by a foreign army, to interfere with the Somali way of life shall be resisted violently. This is the message that history teaches us, and Donald Kipkorir would do well to heed this message.Somalia exists so long as there are Somali people living on the earth. The legal-rational construct that is known as the state of Kenya is manifestly feeble, and potentially transient, when rigorously tested by adversity, as was made abundantly clear after the Kenyan elections of December 2007.
The idea of dismembering Somalia is surely an involuntary admission, on the part of Donald Kipkorir, that Somalia exists as a nation. It may not resemble the façade that is the state of Kenya, but the Somali nation exists and must be respected, especially by neighbouring countries. No amount of legal-rationalism can hide the fact that Donald Kipkorir, and those who have similar ideas, when they speak about the dismemberment of Somalia, are contemplating a crime.Throughout history, the Somali people have consistently rejected the concept of the legal-rational state, as exemplified by the annexation of Texas in 1845, a case cited by Donald Kipkorir in his article.
The western model of the legal-rational state is alien to the Somali people, and to all African people for that matter. The western model of the legal-rational state is the same model that gave the world Slavery, Apartheid, The Berlin Wall, and the global financial meltdown of September 2008. Donald Kipkorir should take a good look at himself, and perhaps he should ask himself in which direction the true, and strategic, national interest of the state of Kenya are to be found.
Posted by V. Egal at 07:03
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