By John Kamau
April 16, 2006 (Daily Nation) - Every July 2, an obituary normally appears in the Kenyan press and goes unnoticed. It is that of Borana/Oromo leader Jatani Ali Tandu who was shot in Nairobi in 1992.
Tandu was the undisputed Borana/Oromo leader and was shot – his friends and followers insist - by operatives of the Ethiopian government for spearheading the establishment of an Oromia republic, which interestingly would have included some chunks of land in northern Kenya.
That the Borana and the Oromo have always fought alongside – to achieve this dream - is well known since then and the insecurity in this frontier, once closed by colonial authorities to outsiders, is part of this unexplained war that now masquerades as stock thefts. This is the bigger picture that Mirugi Kariuki and company were going to settle as they flew in the doomed plane that ended the peace mission and their lives.
With few other resources available in the region livestock has over the years become the "diamonds' that finance this war and the residents of Marsabit and Moyale districts are caught in the war zone either as passive participants, as combatants or as victims.
For many years, only Dr Bonaya Godana stood up to hallenge the Oromia republic and was regularly furious that the Oromo Liberation Front had misled locals that they would secede in case they won the war. Godana's Gabra tribe is usually one of the main targets of the war which at times extended to the corridors of Parliament.
So forgotten is the region that when the Government delegation led by Internal security assistant minister, Mirugi Kariuki left Nairobi only a few people took interest in the trip until it turned tragic. But it is the interest of the Oromo Liberation Front on the unfolding events that indicates that the plane crash was also their
loss.
A day after the deaths, the Oromo Liberation Front chairman Dawud Ibsa Ayana issued a press statement mourning the deaths of the legislators. It was a timely gesture by Oromo Liberation Front but the statement only confirmed the deep interest the movement has on the politics in northern Kenya. Although the Oromo are Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, they have had little political power since the expansion of Ethiopia in the 19th century and have been fighting to
establish their own state - a quest that has destabilised politics in Northern Kenya districts.
For many years, the Kenyan and Ethiopian governments have always formed joint border committee and sub-border committees that not only discuss the question of Oromo but the implications among the different groups that are caught in between.
Established in 1974, the Oromo Liberation Front has over the years had the aim of leading the national liberation struggle of the Oromo people among whom the Kenyan Borana are counted as part of. While some Kenyan Borans have accepted the idea of belonging to an Oromo nation, the majority remain confused.
And when OLF organised raids happen the first casualties are the Gabra simply because they consider themselves more secure within Kenya. With northern Kenya slowly becoming a playing field for insurgents, cross border raids and internecine wars, it will take more than a one day peace effort to secure the territory.
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