Somalia: Come off it, DONALD B. KIPKORIR

Editorial

Writing in Saturday Nation Donald B. Kipkorir, Kenyan lawyer, has called for the annexation of Somalia by Ethiopia and Kenya now that the entire Somali Transitional Parliament was airlifted to Kenya. Mr Kipkoris is unhappy about the actions of Somali pirates who captured a cargo ship carrying tanks and other ammunitions for Kenya.
Why is the distinguished lawyer keen on ‘letting’ Kenya and Ethiopia annex Somalia while both countries are buckling under economic and social pressures similar to those that led to the disintegration of Somalia? The answer, we presume, lies in short memory on the part of Kipkorir. Kenya is still smarting from the scars wrought by tribal civil war after the disputed elections several months ago.
Where was Mr Kipkorir when innocent Kenyans were being massacred solely for their tribal affiliations? His suggestion that “Kenya is an existential enemy of Arab countries, Sudan included” is far fetched given the fact that Kenyans will never find solace in Kipkorir’s exhortations for they know that corruption has cost them the better standard of living they are entitled to. Kenya is now based on flimsy compromises made after Kofi Anan, former head of the United Nations, succeeded to convince President Kibaki and Prime Minster Odinga to share power and rein in their supporters who held Kenya hostage for more than two months.
Donald Kipkorir could benefit from a sense of history: in 1980 the former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam and the former Kenyan leader Daniel Arap Moi signed joint defence pact against Somalia. The former Somali dictator, Mohamed Siyad Barre in a speech to people who attended a mammoth rally, likened the Kenyan and Ethiopian defence pact to Hitler’s plan to liquidate Jews. “That plan failed miserably, and this will too, “ Siyad Barre said. Ministrial delegation led by the late Justus Ole Tipis arrived in Mogadishu. The rest, to use a cliché, is history.

editor@somalipressreview.com

© Somali Press Review 2008