Kenyan Sovereignty and Oromo Affairs
By: Obbo Qeeyroo*
August 29, 2006 — The Kenyan governments recent round ups in its northernmost districts of Moyale and Marsabit have proven to be nothing short of a an amoral regime declaring its illegitimacy. A regime that fails to secure its own interests, but has opted rather to push somebody elses agenda on somebody elses time table, has no business speaking for over 30 million Kenyans. In decaring war on its own citizens at somebody elses will, the Kibaki regime has degraded and violated Kenya’s sovereignty. By allowing Ethiopian government militia’s to pentrate international borders on a regular basis with the same unwarranted allegations of an OLF boogy-man, as pretext to loot, murder, kidnap, and demoralize more ordinary Kenyans, the Kibaki regime has forfeited Kenyan sovereignty. Kenya has become an Ethiopian province.
These violations are not limitted to the border region exclusively, and we witnessed that in December of 2005 when 25 Oromo refugees were kidnapped in Nairobi by TPLF agents operating under what was either the approval of the Kenyan government, or its incompetence. How 25 Ethiopian men and women seeking refuge in Kenya can fall into the merciless hands of the very entity they were seeking refuge from, in the nations capital is inexcusable and a low blow to the legitimacy and overall sovereignty of the Kenyan state. Instead today, as opposed to owning up to its responsibility and appoligizing for neglecting the civil and human rights of Kenyans and those seeking refuge among them, this regime has joined its Ethiopian counterpart in Finfinnee/Addis Ababa, embarking in a campaign of self-humiliation. This government has joined hands with the very regime that has undermined its sovereignty and legitimacy for the past decade, and has gone ahead and declared war on the citizens of Marsabit and Moyale. Today regular citizens born and raised in Kenya are sitting in Kenyan jails, without charge, because they fit the description of a foreign governments boogy-man. The Oromo.
It isn’t to late for the Kibaki regime to reclaim Kenyan sovereignty, and approach its Ethiopian counterpart with the classic rifle in one hand and the olive branch in the other. Kenya must be able to differentiate between short and long term gains/interests. To join a rejected and dying regime in its war on the Oromo people (a nation of 40 million, composing an overwhelming majority in Ethiopia, aswell as a visable minority in Kenya) it would be setting itself up for disasterous consequences in the long run, while forfeiting its sovereignty in the process. It is time for the Kibaki regime to grow a spine and behave as the legitimate ruling party of what would appear to be a sovereign state, from a distance.
*Qeeyroo is an Oromo college student and community activist residing in Canada. He can be reached at [email protected]