The Garre of Mandera County - Garre Quranyow Maxamed Xiniftire Dir

The entire history of the independent Kenya has witnessed the northeastern part of Kenya’s vulnerability to natural calamities and bad governance – thanks to a political culture where opportunism supersedes principle. Many families are yet to recover from such unending episodes of calamities. Education, as evident in the national examinations performance, is always the poorest. Armed banditry and clan warfare has become the trade mark of the region. Cases of gross human rights violations have been documented, though not exhaustively. Being one of the most systematically marginalized communities, pastoralists have virtually no say over the political and administrative changes that have impact on their lives. Moreover, physical boundaries of ancestral lands continually bring problems between clans.


Garre, a cushitic people found in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. they are estimated to be 700,000 persons living in Kenya. In Kenya majority of the population found in Mandera district are known for their pastrolist as livelihood form. Mandera District ( Garre District) of NorthEastern Province was named after the indigenous and predominant Garre Community by Sir Vincent Glenday, Chief Shaba Alio and the Prominent Elder, Aw Gababa Alio in 1900.


According to a report in the Kenyan National Archive (PC/NFD/Monthly Report 1914/1927), the town of Mandera was made the District Headquarters in 1910 and remained the capital of the Northern Frontier District (NFD) until it was moved to Meru in 1919. Only Garre inhabited Mandera by then. This name persisted till 1930, before it was changed to what was later come to be known as Mandera District. It is also a known fact that the Dogodia (Degodia) are the predominant community in Wajir and the Ogaden in Garissa. However, this is not to suggest that each district is inhabited exclusively by the one tribe or clan.
The issue of boundary between the two districts of Wajir and the Gurreh District was resolved in 1924. According to a report from the Kenya National Archive (DC/MDA/3/3 – MDA/24) a public baraza held in Elwak by DCs from Moyale, Wajir and Mandera and representatives of the Gurreh and Dogodia (Degodia) discussed issues of boundaries between Wajir and Mandera. A definite boundry was laid for the Wajir of Dogodia (Degodia) and the Garre District from Boloble area to the Italian Somaliland boundary. This boundary was reciprocal. It is therefore a known fact on files and records in the Kenyan National Archive that the two communities inhabited two different regions during and after the colonial era in the country.
Although the Garre community is tolerant and accommodative to all of its neighbors – such gesture of hospitality has been take for granted and abused by the many who later came to reside in the Gurreh District.
The recent move by the Dogodia (Degodia) community to seek an exclusive administrative region of their own in the Garre land in Mandera that is likely to be converted to new constitency, is a blatant and open aggression that cannot be tolerated by any civilized community in this nation. Our brothers have never been tolerant to any community living amidst them in the vast Wajir District and should expect less in this regard.


Ancestral lands are valued more than anything else in ones life, hence a hot bed of tension.


Land issues have been identified as one of the major causes of conflict in Kenya, particulrly in Mandera, the marginalized district of Northeastern Kenya. This violence is blamed on the invading clans from the neighboring clans with expansionist mind and the government, which is insensitive to land issues in the region. Importation of evaders and being registered as voters in other peoples ancestral land is surely a catalyst for disenfranchment and future inter-clan conflicts that is likely to be followed by a scenaria recently experienced in Elwak ” Bring your gun or you die”