THE GABABA LEGACY &THE FUTURE GARRE GENERATION

Today the Garre people have commemorated 50 years of the death of Hajj Robow Hajj Hassan Gababa, a charismatic leader that premature death robbed from us. Just like his father, Robow is an outstanding young man who would have held high the mantle of his community over years. It is our prayer that God rest his soul in Jannah.

On the 3rd of September 1949 Hajj Hassan Gababa (Allah Yaa Rahma) Stood up on the shallow wells of Borbor, stretched out his hands facing East and said to his compatriots “Is this enough to Garre” his reference? The large mass of land stretched between the point he is standing to the Rocky valleys of Malkamari all the way to south of the Ganaale River and whatever that is in between. That was when Alio shaba represented the Garre country at Elwak, that was when the great pastoral land that lies between river Dawa and the great plains of Badasa all the way to Gedo was called THE GARRE COUNTRY by the powers that be.

Sixty five years after the proclamation of this noble statement by Hajji Hassan Gababa, the Great Garre land that has been emancipated from the pagan Oromo indigenous at the cost of thousands of lives is no more than a barren enclave that is sandwiched between Rhamu Hills and El-danaba under continuous threat of Desertification and aridity backed by continuous and successful expansionist propaganda of various ethnic war loads.
The Garre people have lost thousands of their prime lands in the last fifty years when the mantle of the community leadership was in the hands of the hyenas who remote control the affairs of the community from the affluent corners of the Kenyan capital.

Throughout Kenya’s history various ethnic communities in the republic have taken up arms to fight oppression of various backgrounds raging from tribal land grabbing to cattle rustling and Mandera is not exceptional when it comes to routing out aggression and oppression.
For the knowledge of Everyone the Garre people form an overwhelming majority and the most widespread clan in Mandera. We live in all the constituencies and Wards in Mandera, we own superior rights over Mandera owing to our ancestral efforts than other people. our people were the first Somali group to arrive in Mandera, chased away the Borana, fought and defeated the Murulle and Degodia and then allowed the two clans back to graze-as VISITORS!!. THE STATUS QUO HAS NOT CHANGED AND SHALL NEVER EVER CHANGE!

The Degodia, a miserably looking and a disgrace to humanity whose only skills is rearing camels, came in to Garre land from Ethiopia at the turn of the Century and were giving grazing rights in a restricted areas by Garre leaders of the time, overtime the visitors who at one time in history gave hundred She camels to Ugas Alio Shaba to be granted the authority to cross the Dau river to graze their camels on Garre territory ONLY during the rainy seasons grew horns and developed interest of what by right belong to the Garre - land and political supremacy!

Today, the Degodia who were living illegally on Garre land (I said illegally because they have abused the hospitality that our forefathers granted them) by carrying out assassinations, raids, and illegal road ambushes at the heart of Garre land have put the future of the next Garre generations at stake.
Garre have a rich political and social history that have been blessed by Almighty until in recent years when its secular leadership destroyed this and took home the credit of selling off our land to the expansionists rival communities for trivities of self-interest!

Now, When the Garre people were evicted from Bute by the Ajuran in the summer of the year 2001, the government was under the leadership of the powerful KANU party. Nothing was done and as a matter of fact the same government facilitated the forceful evictions of the Garre from their homes, their business premises looted, women raped, toddlers maimed and terror attack carried out repeatedly on the poor civilians, the government reasons; Garres Don’t belong there!

During the recent clashes between Garre and Degodia, the Wagberi neighborhood in wajir was razed to ground and hundreds of homes looted, thousands left homeless right on the face of the Digital government, and what was the government plan this time round? Round up the Garre people and depot them where they belong! That is what they did without any reservations.

Now is the time to make the decisions that your children and your children’s shall live to cherish your actions for. Your visitors are becoming increasingly militarized at the expense of your hospitality and becoming a threat to the future of the Garre people.

You’ll never ever get peace as far the Degodia’s live in Mandera, strategy have been put in place to take the Garre people as hostage on their own land, the filtu-Wajir connection is a dream that can be achieved as far as the bandit den of Olo and Ashabito is in place and are inhabited by the Degodia. This land belong to Garre and should be repossessed by whatever means and the Wajir IDPs be resettled there.

The Garre people have nothing to be proud of today, if a Garre cannot and as time goes in the near future will not travel between Banisa and Takaba for fear of attack, if a Garre cannot live in the beautiful Gorges of Ashabito because he doesn’t belong there, if Garre families in Rhamu are sporadically maimed and constantly reminded they don’t belong there, Why should a Garre be proud of his motherland, a motherland that shall be remembered in the future as empty graveyards for our ancestors?

We have accepted the mass evictions of our people from Wajir with hearts in our mouths; We have endured the continued ethnic cleansing of our people by the powers that be backed by a continuously militarized Degodia expansionists militia whose aim is to create a Zionist like ethnic state in Mandera. It is time to say NO!

Mandera conflict is a simple arithmetic that even every child in Mandera can easily address. The Garre people cannot live in Wajir so say the Degodia, why should they live on OUR land? We were visitors there, they were visitors here! Period!!

If you are a Garre leader today or you are Garre Ugas today then you are living behind a legacy that shall haunt future Garre generation to eternity, you need peace in Mandera? Let Degodia go to Wajir or Odo! kwisha mambo and the only way to do that is not talks and counter talks it is through force. Mind you am not suggesting a new thing now, use of force has been there since time memorial and it is the only tool that the Degodia’s used to evict our people from their land, and so why should you not use?

Maasalam.