Caught between Uganda and al-Shabaab.

Bartamaha  (Kampala):- Somali nationals in Uganda say they should be accepted as Ugandan citizens, writes Benon Herbert Oluka.

It took just one day after the deadly July 11 bomb attacks in Kampala for Mohammed Musa, a Somali refugee resident in Kisenyi, a bustling slum in the middle of Kampala, to come face-to-face with the spontaneous fury of some Ugandans whose families had either been killed or injured in the twin blasts.

Mr Musa says on Monday, the very day that the al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed 76 people and injured more than 50, he went to the International Hospital in Kampala for treatment. The same hospital happened to be where some of the victims of the attack had been taken, and the sight of him sent some of their relatives mad with rage.

“I don’t want to see a Somali here,” Mr Musa recalls one of the people there to have shouted. He says the noise soon got louder as other people hurled insults in his direction. However, security officials present took him to a private room where he received treatment.

Mr Musa says he shrugged off the verbal attack as a spur-of-the-moment incident. “I saw no problem with it because of what had happened,” he explained. “Some people had lost their relatives so (their attack) was not a big deal for me.”

However, Mr Musa changed his stance when he returned home and shared the day’s events with his family. The Treasurer of the Somali Community Association in Uganda says after narrating the incident involving him, his son – a senior one student in one of Kampala’s schools – revealed that he too had suffered a similar threat. “One of the friends of my son told him that if the investigations are completed and it becomes clear that a Somali brought those bombs, don’t come back to school because we shall hunt you,” he said.

Incidents of that nature initially spread fear and anxiety among many members of the Somali Community, numbering about 10,000 in Uganda. Mr Musa says he stopped all his children from going to school or venturing out of Kisenyi. The leadership of their association immediately reached out to the leadership in the country.

Four days after the bomb attacks, the leaders of the Somalis in Uganda had secured a meeting between members of their community and the Resident District Commissioner of Kampala Central, Ms Rose Kirabira, the Kampala Metropolitan Police Commandant, Mr Andrew Sorowen, and the Old Kampala DPC, Mr Siraje Bakaleke.

A day earlier, they had also been boosted by President Museveni’s plea to Ugandans not to victimise individual Somalis for an attack that the al-Shabaab, an Islamist group in Somalia, had claimed responsibility. “After the meeting with the RDC, people took back children to school and re-opened their businesses,” said Mohammed Ali, a 28-year-old youth mobiliser with the Somali Association in Uganda.

To-date, no Somali resident in Uganda has been physically attacked, and many of those arrested by security officials for questioning because of lack of identification documents have been released, according to Mr Ali.

For members of the Somali Community in Uganda, the July 11 attacks thrust them in the middle of a tricky situation. Having escaped Somalia’s mayhem and sought refuge in Uganda, many of them had prospered in business and now called Kampala home. But the acrimony that followed last week’s incidents, which they say shocked them as much as any Ugandan, was sometimes too evident.

Yet, according to the Vice Chairman of the Somali Community, Mr Abdulahi Hassan Roble, similar sentiments towards them had come from al-Shabaab due to the fact that rather than accept the overtures of the terrorist outfit, they had condemned the initial threats – issued last year – to attack Uganda.

As they explain the absurdity of their situation, it soon becomes clear that most members of the Somali Community have been so far from their ancestral home that many no longer know it. Mr Musa says since he fled Somalia about 20 years ago, he has never set foot in the war-ravaged country. And in the case of Mr Roble, the horn of Africa nation is just a country that his late father hailed from.

“I have never gone to Somalia in my whole life. I don’t know what it looks like,” said Mr Roble persuasively, almost as if he was pleading for understanding. “I was born here in 1945. My father passed away from here but my mother, who is from Kapchorwa. So I am a part of this country.”

Mr Roble, who carries a Ugandan passport says while he feels Ugandan, he has kept in touch with his Somali roots by linking up with members of the Somali Community who seek refuge in Uganda.

Even some of those who came as recently as the early 2000s like Mr Ali say they have found their financial footing. According to Mr Ali, when he first came with his father, they were registered as refugees and transferred to Nakivale, a refugee settlement in Masindi. After receiving initial support to start small businesses, he became financially stable enough to leave the camp. Today, members of the Somali Community own some of the most visible businesses in the country like filling stations, hotels, vehicle depots, transport companies, forex bureaux, and supermarkets.

Internal strife
But while the Somalis have managed to live largely in peace with Ugandans, their house is not in order. For the last two years, they faced a bitter leadership row that ended up in court. However while court ruled on who should lead the Community, it could not bring the warring parties together.

Consequently, after the Somali Community Association in Uganda – which court ruled as the legitimate leadership – organised the July 15 meeting with Kampala and police authorities, the section faction led by Abdulahi Mandela arranged another meeting on July 17. “We told them about our meeting but they didn’t come. We are now giving people different messages,” said Mr Roble.

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Source:-Daily Monitor