Billow Kerrow, the senator for Mandera County. He was among political leaders from northern Kenya who opposed government plans to do a recount of Somalis after the 2009 census revealed an abnormal increase in the number of Somalis in Kenya (https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1440&bih=787&q=billow+kerrow&oq=billow+kerrow&gs_l=img.12..0j0i8i30j0i24l6.1089.6356.0.8218.20.17.0.0.0.0.614.2184.2-1j1j2j1.5.0.msedr…0…1ac.1.64.img..15.5.2182.1SPLE_sPDBE#imgrc=EoYN1OED5RoaSM%253A%3BXP41y9PKK2WQmM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.iisd.ca%252Fpaic%252Fimages%252F30apr%252FIMG_0910.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.iisd.ca%252Fpaic%252F30apr.html%3B2700%3B1350)
If leaders from the former North Eastern province in Kenya were serious about helping in the fight against Al Shabaab, they would first have apologized to Kenyans because of their refusal to allow the government to do a repeat census in some districts in northern Kenya a few years back, before even asking for the closure of Dadaab refugee camp. They are asking to close the stable after the horse has already bolted out! The leaders from northern Kenya should now allow the government to do a recount for eight districts in the province the way it intended way back in 2010, if indeed they are remorseful for the recent death of 148 young Kenyans in Garissa University College, at the hands of terrorists. The government announced its intention when it released the 2009 census in 2010. One may ask how the 2009 census results and the death of these Kenyans are connected. It will be good to revisit here the events of 2009 and 2010. While releasing the census results for 2009 (this happened some time in 2010), the government then called for a repeat of the exercise in eight districts bordering Somalia due to inconsistencies in expected numbers. The then Planning Minister Wycliffe Oparanya said the census showed that Kenya’s Somali population had shot up to 2,385,572 from less than 800,000 within 10 years. The Minister said the rate of increase was higher than the population dynamics, explaining that if one considered the birth and death rates in those districts, they could not support the census figures. He added that the age and sex profiles also deviated from the norm. Further, the minister said analysis found that the number of men was higher than that of women by three times, yet the norm is that there is always a balance of 50-50 or women are slightly higher. The affected districts were Lagdera, Wajir East, Mandera Central, Mandera East and Mandera West that border Dadaab refugee camp. Others were Turkana Central, Turkana North and Turkana South that border the Kakuma refugee camp. At that time, leaders from northern Kenya, led by one Billow Kerrow, the current senator for Mandera, rejected the proposal to do a recount, saying it was illegal and that if it was allowed, it would amount to discriminating against a part of the population. Some residents from the affected areas even threatened to go to court to reverse the cancellation of those results and to stop a repeat exercise. The politicians heading the government at the time decided to play politics and gave in to this political blackmail, perhaps reasoning that this will help them not to lose the political support of this segment of the Kenyan population. Their reaction was typical of many politicians – selfish, narrow-minded and short-sighted. The actions of both leaders from the northern part of the country and the leading politicians at the time have now come home to haunt us. If the government had taken that action then, perhaps it would have been able to weed out some criminal elements that had found their way into the country, and Garissa would not have happened. It is obvious that criminal elements from Somalia have found their way into the country and that explains the 2009 census results for the eight districts in the north. That is when the rain started beating us as a nation. By their statement soon after the Garissa massacre, the Kenya Somali leaders have now admitted that indeed the country has been infiltrated by the Al-Shabaab militia group and the only way to deal with them is by exposing them and even closing the Dabaab refugee camp. This is too little too late. This is an indictment of these leaders. What it tells us is that all along they knew that there were people from Somalia who were in the country illegally, yet they were not ready to inform the government. The only conclusion that one draws from this is that these leaders, most of whom are political leaders, supported the entry of the foreigners into the country so they could use them for political purposes. This shows a lack of patriotism and it calls into question their genuineness in helping the government deal with terrorism. The situation in northern Kenya is delicate yet the people from the region ought to understand that some of the measures being put in place by the government, although very inconveniencing, are for the good of the country. These leaders should now go ahead and support all genuine government efforts of trying to deal with the terrorism menace. These efforts may not be appreciated by most Kenyan Somalis, many of whom will be affected in the short term, but they are necessary.
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