The Somali people have scattered all around the world after having missed the law and order in their homeland.
Some of the tangible countries in Africa which they (Somalis) have fled to are the immediate neighbour countries of Somalia such Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda and some other stable regions within the country such Somaliland and Puntland.
Among all the other places mentioned above Kenya is holding the largest Somalis who have fled from Somalia, be it those in the refugee camps at Dadab in North Eastern Kenya or those who are running booming commercial activities in the heart of Nairobi or the Somali dominated section of East Leigh.
Despite the security in the country and the skyrocketing trade which the Somalis are doing in varies places in Kenya including the coastal town of Mombassa there are challenges which the Somalis are encountering from the Kenyan police who often think that the Somalia are made of money, and take extort money from them or otherwise drop them at a famous police station called Pangani police station, where they spend a night or two and their release depends on a handful of money paid to the police officer in charge of that police station.
The Somalis dominate East Leigh during the day in their hundreds, but in the night it is hard to see a single Somali on the streets of East Leigh fearing the arrest of the policemen who in the first place ask you extort money and if you have nothing in you pocket drop you to Pangani police station.
It was sometimes last year when the Kenyan police have arrested almost the entire Somalis in East Leigh including former military generals, legislators and other ordinary people at that particular time when the Somalis were arrested there were no explosions which have taken in Nairobi, but Al-Shabab an Islamist faction who have threatened to target Nairobi, but this time when there are explosions who will be the fate of the Somalis? I asked this question a senior Somali Journalist Jamal Ahmed Osman in Nairobi.
“In fact it is not something that can be neglected that the Kenyan authority has helped the Somalis after the chaos in their country, but the Kenyan police very often target the Somalis in Nairobi, not caring who has the Kenyan national identity card and who has it the Police ask for money not caring does this person has money or not and if you do not meet their demand the next step is the kick of their hard leather made shoes followed by the butt of their guns” said Jamal Ahmed Osman a senior Somali journalist who is in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
The police in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti do not ask extort money the Somali people in their countries, but instead give respect and consideration.
Mohammed Omar Hussein+25261-5519235 shiinetown@hotmail.com
Somaliweyn Media Center (SMC)
No comments:
Post a Comment