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The first two rallies on the forthcoming national referendum in Garissa town were marked by violence. It was bound to happen.

Vice President Moody Awori with Cabinet ministers John Michuki and Njenga Karume leading the 'Yes' vote. The violence that met the proponents of the Draft Constitution in Garissa could just have been a message the area residents were sending.


Not because Garissa is the capital of the volatile region but because national politics here are intermixed with unending clan wars.

When a stone was thrown at former Cabinet Minister - and Dujis MP - Hussein Maalim Mohamed it sparked memories of an unending bitter war that marked Kanu nomination campaigns in 2002 after Maalim, a kingpin in area politics, was cleared as Kanu candidate for Dujis.

Have political fortunes finally dipped for the former minister?

For many years Maalim has had an easy ride.

His word was authority in Garissa and such hostility would have been unheard of.

Ever since his elder brother retired General Mahmoud Mohammed foiled the 1982 coup it is the younger Maalim, who reaped political benefits from the Moi regime as he was nominated to Parliament - a giant leap for the former Sankuri Ward councillor.

But with Moi out of power and General Mohammed retired and forgotten on the political terrain it is the younger Maalim who is taking the final bullets testing whether he can withstand political pressure brought in by the referendum campaign.

A man of immense resources and who has enjoyed strong grassroots support Maalim, his friends say, is bitter with what transpired when a team of 'Yes' supporters were ejected - a tail-between-the-legs departure - from the failed rally by rowdy 'No' supporters.

That the 'No' campaigners were forced into a similar position on Thursday, only that the police restored semblance of peace, shows the complexities of politics in the region.

The Abduwak and Abdallah clans of the Greater Garissa District, which includes Ijara sub-district, have been fighting for supremacy.

The protagonists are Maalim for the Abduwak clan and nominated MP Mohammed Yusuf Haji, a former Rift Valley Provincial Commissioner of the Abdallah clan.

Created in 1999 there is still no official border between Ijara and Garissa districts because of the disputed Hulugho division, considered the ancestral land of the Abduwak people who have resisted being annexed to Ijara.

It was in Ijara where Maalim as a Cabinet minister, was accused of "sabotaging" the new district while his supporters termed Haji an "expansionist".

Although the Ogaden clan dominates Garissa District the political battles have been between its sub-clans - the Abdallah, Abduwak and Aulihan.

It is these clan politics that mark the politics of the area and which may determine which way the referendum vote goes.

Thus, when Haji emerged with a group of six MPs in demanding that Water minister, Martha Karua apologise for referring to the rowdy crowd as "refugees" he was only fighting a separate battle with Maalim: Political dominancy in the local politics.

Haji has had problems before because his family and clan is remembered for opposing the secessionist Shifta war, a matter that did not endear him to the locals for a long time. But it made him rise in the provincial administration. Haji's father was a chief.

Thus the Mohammed family, with its immense wealth, is on the ground seen to have made many development contributions than that of Haji.

These factors have been used before in the search for political patronage and it will be interesting to see how they influence the referendum.

The battle for Garissa will be simplified as between Abduwak and Abdulla sub-clans who have fought bloody and vengeful clan wars for many years.

It will show how the entry of Haji into the political mix has complicated matters for the once powerful Maalim family - who control Ijara District politics, and to an extent influence the events in Garissa.

Haji is more forceful than Maalim, who is soft-spoken and shuns controversy.

Ever since Project Uhuru was curved Haji organised Members of Parliament from NEP to shore up support for Mr Kenyatta and was even accused of favouring Ibrahim Salat, who was opposing Maalim for Dujis seat.

It is instructive to note that during the nomination Salat boycotted the Kanu polls and violence rocked Garissa as he sought nomination on a Ford-People ticket.

In the elections Maalim won but the battle lines were drawn. Interestingly Salat comes from Abduwak clan like Maalim but from the different sub-clan of Rer Musa.

It is these imprints that miss in the bigger picture of the politics in the Greater Garissa.

Another problem is that the Mandera and Wajir districts had during the Moi regime complained that all ministerial positions were being given to the Ogadeni of Garissa, which was a reference to Haji and Maalim Mohammed.

But the main battles have been between Haji and Maalim. When Haji was appointed an assistant minister in October 2002, Maalim - then Health minister - was quickly endorsed by his supporters as the NEP spokesman in the compound of a Garissa community leader, Dekow Subal. With the two titans on opposing sides the politics on the referendum in Garissa, considered the capital of north Eastern province will be between the Abdallah, Aulihan, and Abduwak sub-clans and it will centre on issues of resources and power.


The new constitution - whatever it says - offers a good dais for the battle.


Source: The East African Standard Of Kenya (Nairobi)