BORANA PARAMOUNT CHIEF ON THE OROMO LIBERATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NAIROBI 004377

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/11/2016
TAGS: PINR PREL PGOV ET KE
SUBJECT: BORANA PARAMOUNT CHIEF ON THE OROMO LIBERATION
FRONT AND ETHIOPIAN INFLUENCE

REF: NAIROBI 4313

Classified By: PolCouns Andre for reasons 1.4 (B,D).


1. (C) Summary: Paramount Chief Abdisalan claims that
Ethiopia has an active informant network in northern Kenya's
Moyale District targeting OLF supporters and that many Kenyan
officials in Moyale are on Ethiopia's payroll. He believes
that the leadership class of Moyale District supports
Ethiopia while "the Borana in the bush strongly favor the
OLF." Peace initiatives addressing chronic ethnic conflicts
in the district are undermined by OLF hired-guns. End Summary.


2. (U) PolCouns met with Paramount Chief of the Borana
Ibrahim Abdisalan to discuss the presence of Oromo Liberation
Front (OLF) fighters in Moyale and Marsabit districts of
northern Kenya. Note that Kenya's Borana and Ethiopia's
Oromo are essentially the same ethnic group.


3. (C) Abdisalan claimed that OLF allies in the lower rungs
of the Moyale District administration and police services
gave OLF fighters advance warning about a recent attempt by
the Government of Kenya (GoK) to identify and arrest OLF
militants. The OLF fighters dispersed from the towns to
remote villages and camps in the bush. The GoK made
indiscriminate arrests of Ethiopian Oromos who could not
produce Kenyan identity papers. According to Abdisalan, very
few of those arrested as suspected OLF militants had any
association with the OLF.


4. (C) Abdisalan asserted that some Borana leaders are
actively recruiting current and former OLF fighters to assist
them in their conflict with the Gabra. (NOTE: The Borana
and Gabra have a long-standing and often bloody feud
revolving around competition for pasturage and water sources.
END NOTE) Attempts by Gabra and Borana elders to make peace
are frustrated by these guns-for-hire who create incidents to
re-ignite conflict whenever peace appears to be at hand.
Their motive is job security.


5. (C) Commenting on Ethiopian activity in Moyale District,
Abdisalan said that Ethiopian military incursions are less
frequent than in the past (see reftel for the views of
Moyale's District Commissioner),but that Ethiopia's
informant network is quite active. He alleged that
informants on Ethiopia's payroll finger individuals who
support the OLF with food and shelter. Sometimes, he
maintained, these informants will denounce their landlord or
a personal rival with no connection to the OLF for purely
personal reasons. Consequences of denunciation can be dire,
including "disappearances" and beatings. Abdisalan said that
the GoK's Moyale administration goes out of its way to avoid
confronting Ethiopia over these practices. He insisted that
many Moyale administrative and security officials are in
Ethiopia's employ.


6. (C) When PolCouns asked Abdisalan whether Kenya or
Ethiopia had greater influence in Moyale District, he replied
that the majority of elders of the district's three main
communities, Borana, Gabra and ethnic Somali (Gurreh),"are
answerable to Ethiopia." He attributed their allegiance to
Ethiopia's program of inducements and threats. He claimed
that the same pattern applied to neighboring Marsabit
District as concerns the Borana and Gabra, but that this was
not true of the Rendille community of Marsabit "since they
are not represented on the Ethiopian side of the border."
Abdisalan noted that while the Borana leadership and senior
levels of GoK administration in Moyale and Marsabit districts
are firmly in Ethiopia's camp, "the Borana in the bush
strongly favor the OLF."


7. (U) Abdisalan contacted PolCouns to express his
appreciation for the successful completion of a girls' school
construction project in Bute undertaken by a CJTF-HOA civil
affairs team. PolCouns delivered a commemorative plaque to
the school in late July and met Abdisalan at that time. He
also noted that his brother-in-law, prominent Moyale cleric
Sheikh Nasir, had a very positive experience in the U.S. as a
participant in an international visitor program focused on
the American Muslim community.


8. (C) Comment: Abdisalan only offered his views at
PolCouns' prompting. He did not appear to have a particular
agenda to push regarding either Ethiopia or Kenya. He seemed
resigned to both the GoK's chronic neglect of his region and
Ethiopia's intense involvement in the affairs of Kenya's
Borana community. Ethiopia is filling the vacuum created by
Kenya's long history of ignoring and under-investing in the
governance of the North. This is a USG concern since
under-governed regions can be exploited by actors intending
harm to USG interests.

NAIROBI 00004377 002 OF 002




9. (SBU) While USAID/East Africa (USAID/EA) has several
ongoing cross-border peace-building initiatives along the
Kenyan border with Ethiopia (District Peace Committees),the
decision was made not to task the contractor with mounting an
initiative along the Moyale/Moyale border because of the
complexity of issues driving the conflict there. Despite a
clear need for enhancing community based peace structures
there, a very serious assessment would need to be undertaken
of the underlying causes of the conflict, including both
governments' involvement. The assessment would also be an
opportunity to more clearly examine how the instability
relates to US national security interests.


10. (SBU) At present, USAID/EA strategy addresses the overall
lack of cross-border governance by encouraging collaboration
between local government, civil society and community based
organizations (elders, youth and women's groups) through the
District Peace Committees. USAID/EA notes that this normally
effective approach can only succeed with a clear commitment
from the two governments to address the underlying political
factors described above.
HOOVER