Relative calm returns to N. Kenya after tribal clashes

Relative calm has returned to the clash torn Mandera town of northern Kenya after 3 days of inter-clan fighting that left more than 6 people dead, several houses burnt and hundreds of residents displaced. The fighting which flared-up following the killing of 3 people from same clan in a gun ambush 10 km from Rhamu town last Sunday spread to Mandera town after the bodies of those killed were taken to the town for burial angering. Schools which were closed after parents withheld their children in fear for their safety were re-opened and business premises which had their doors shut for the last three days also open for business. The local leaders led by area lawmaker Mohamed Hussein Qaras on Friday urged the warring clans to embrace dialogue and refrain from any act of lawlessness that was likely to disrupted peacefully coexistence of varies communities living in the cosmopolitan county. The legislator said that clan animosity has no place in the new political dispensation of County governance noting that diversity of clans, ideas, talents and brains were required to foster the progress of the border county noting that a lot of money was annually wasted on peace mission in the area. "It is unfortunate that millions of money meant for development project had to be diverted in restoring peace in the county anytime skirmishes occur. Clan must learn a better way of amicably solving their difference instead of resting into bloodletting," he advised. The legislator said the peace efforts led by the local leadership for the last four years has bore fruits as many private developers who saw the potential of the county started investing in varies sectors including hoteliers and entrepreneurs started investing in Mandera town leading to employment of many idle youth. Qaras urged the local politicians and clan elders from making political statements and endorsement of individuals for specific political positions against the wishes of the local communities noting that such statements were fuelling unnecessary hostilities between varies clans. Divisional police commander Jackson Rotich said sufficient security personnel were deployed in Mandera and Rhamu towns to deal with criminals who were bent on breaching the prevailing peace in the area. Rotich said the security forces have also been deployed to the area amid several reports of explosion and gunshots in the past three days. Some have blamed the recurrent conflict in the County over the contesting in sharing the forthcoming historic election noting pacts made by council of elders on which clan to become what political position is creating hostility as the those clans who are minority are opting to disrupt stability. There have also been rising fears among communities living along the porous border with Somalia that the military group Al- Shabaab fleeing from the imminent military assault on their last bastion town of Kismayo was likely to turn their frustration on the innocent civilians in a series of revenge attacks. Panic has gripped border town of Mandera, Liboi and Amuma over the past month as unconfirmed report from Somali indicates that the weakened military group were withdrawing from port city of Kismayo heading toward Southern part of the war-weary country which borders Kenya, a country whose military invasion to flush out the military group had served recurrent terror attacks from the militia since October 2011.