At least six killed in inter -clan clashes in Mandera

At least six people were killed and dozens injured in the past week during inter-communal conflicts in Mandera in the northern part of kenya police confirmed on Wednesday.

Regional police commander, Phillip Tuimur said the sporadic attacks have been caused by inter-clan animosity between politically rival clans of Garre and Degodia.

“These clashes have been going for a while now, we really don’t know the cause but as a matter of fact we know that it was between two rivals’ clans in Mandera,” Tuimur told Xinhua .

The clans whose animosity stems from the bungled 2007 general election are reportedly arming themselves to teeth for a full blown clashes if the government does not intervene quickly and decisively.

“The six were killed in separate days and in separate places.

“We have also launched investigations to establish the root cause,” the regional police commander said.

Garre and Degodia clans, who have co-existed in Mandera and Wajir counties for years harmoniously, have turned bitter foes after the 2007 election, after the former clan lost its traditional Mandera central constituency to the later.

Garre, who are majority in the constituency, lost the seat to Abdikhadir Mohamed, a Degodia after Garre’s votes were divided among over four candidates contesting.

The animosity boiled into full clashes after two secondary school boys returning from a weekend excursion at their homes in Banisa to Rhamu were accosted, killed and their motorbikes were stolen at Guba, just two kilometers from Banisa town.

This retaliated a revenge killing of two people in Banisa in the following day.

Scores of families gripped by panic of the inter-clan killings have moved to the areas where the clans are majority creating divisions of settlements on clan bases.

Four people were killed on different dates in the last one week in Banisa district of Mandera West constituency.

This has led to retaliation killings of two other people and the injuring of an education official in Rhamu town on Tuesday.

Scores of families from both sides have fled Banisa, Malka-Mari, Guba and parts of Rhamu town, fearing for their lives as revenge killings spread into other parts of the county.

Tuimur said more security officers have been deployed in the affected areas in a bid to boost security.

“The residents of Mandera should feel secure knowing that the government is in control, at least sanity has been restored in the areas that were worst affected by this clashes,” he added.

In 2008, the government was forced to use the military to quell bloody clashes that claimed more than 40 people and displaced thousands of others in Mandera-East district residents.

The two clans, who both have clan presences in the bordering Ethiopian region, are accusing each other of hiring militias across the border to be engaged in the killings.

Earlier this year, clashes between the Borana and Gabra communities around Moyale town, on the border with Ethiopia left at least 60 people dead.

Fighting between the Borana and Gabra communities began in December, 2011, mostly over control of resources such as water and grazing land but the conflict has also been linked to politics.

General elections in the east African nation, which frequently spark violence, are due on March 4, 2013.

The locals said relative calm has returned in the area although more families who had fled the resource-linked conflicts between the Gabra and Borana pastoralist communities have not returned.

The residents said the weeks of conflicts in March led more than 15 settlements and grazing areas to be abandoned, with those who used to live there fleeing to Marsabit, Wajir and Isiolo districts, neighboring Moyale.

Moyale district in Kenya’s northern border with Ethiopia has been the scene of recent tribal clashes involving mainly Borana and Gabra communities.

Livestock herding is the main livelihood and source of income in northern and some parts of eastern Kenya, and the hike in cattle thefts threatens to ignite cross-community reprisals and raids that could set the stage for a surge in ethnic fighting in the region.

Clashes between the rival cattle herding pastoralists in the region are common, with herders often carrying guns to protect their animals, but the recent fighting has been unusually heavy..