A battalion of 200 ethnic Garre tribesmen of Ethiopia armed with mortars, machineguns, and assault rifles crossed the border and entered Kenya. They bombed Banisa villages where ethnic Degodia tribesmen live. Massive destructions of property using mortar bombs left the village in ruin. These events happened inside Kenya under the watch of both intelligence and police officers deployed in the conflict zone.
Ethnic terrorism has become a threat to Kenya’s national security. The Ethiopian Garre tribesmen crossed the border into Kenya without being intercepted by Kenyan border police or military.Numbering over 200 and heavily armed this militant outfit was on a mission to aid their Kenyan kin.
There are Garre’s in Kenya and Ethiopia and they have been crossing the border between Ethiopia and Kenya without much ado.
However, it is the crossing of the border with heavy arms, particularly mortars and donning military fatigues that is very worrying. Also, the aspect of Kenya military deployed to man borders against foreign aggression is also a very interesting event.
Ethnic terrorism is sensitive to preempt. The possibility of one tribe viewing security operations as hostile to them worries the state. Looking away is often a respite to peace operations. The strategy defuses tensions and allows government to look non-partisan.
In Tana River, hundreds of tribesmen were killed by a rival tribal. The conflict was factored by pastures and water besides economic waste due to destruction of crop by grazing livestock from the other tribe. Stifling of economic activities between the communities and others outside the conflict zone was employed as a strategy to force cohesion and trade between the warring tribes.
Mandera has not witnessed such high levels of ethnic violence in history. The conflict magnitude was less.
The implications of these events may be far reaching. This deterrent capability of ethnic militia besides the impunity confirmed through crossing the border without worrying about the sovereignty of the republic of Kenya will have catastrophic ramifications on regional geopolitics.
Though Ethiopia and Kenya share intelligence and military cooperation, the ramification of the stamp that expresses militant deterrent capability only inspires other ethnic militias to use porous borders as launching pads for ethnic terror besides related militancy.
Al-Shabaab militants have entered Kenya through Boni forest border areas and successfully launched attacks in Kenya. In Tana River, armed raiders could deploy and launch successful attacks.
During the 2007-2008 ethnic violence, the country witnessed ethnic terrorism when armed raiders targeted communities living near or within their areas of operation.
The ramifications of militia success inside a sovereign country downgrade the geopolitical value of that particular nation. The event itself depicts weak security structures and poor cooperation between that country and the neighbor which is the origin of the militia. The event itself is an insignia of a poor network of intelligence and policing resources. It is a confirmation of a bad security policy.
