By: Ahmed Abdirashid Hajji
MANDERA—They say to live far from home is to live in fear. We meet men who traveled thousands of kilometers to seek job here in Mandera so that they can fend for their families back home.
But lately, to work here is no longer a walk in the park since Al Shabab started targeting them, often in the dead of the night.
In this year alone, Al Shabab killed at least 20 people in Mandera, majority of them non-locals.
Charles Dybala is from Nyanza. He said he came to Mandera four years ago to work in the local quarry which is located few miles east of Mandera town. He says everything was relatively normal until Al Shabab started hunting for them.
It all started in 2014 when the group targeted non-local workers at the quarry which was later followed by a series of deadly attacks.
Dyabala, a father of three is pursued by a local bank after he borrowed a loan to support his mining business. He said he cannot leave Mandera and forget his investment nor stay put and lose his life—- a classical example of a man between a rock and a hard place.
When the sun goes down and they troop back to their homes, these men understand more than anyone else that they have a new challenge to deal with—They are not sure if they will wake up to a new dawn and continue their work from where they left yesterday.
Beside the danger that lurk in the dark, this men believe that the local security agencies are not doing enough to protect them from the militants.
To rub salt to a fresh wound, the local landlords have sent out notice to the non-locals to vacate their houses because when Al Shabab strikes, they usually use explosives that damage the building. They are now stranded in town, gazing into a bleak future.
“The continuous trend of Al-Shabaab raiding residential houses where mostly non-locals live gives us and our colleagues sleepless nights,” Dyabala said.
The development in the county heavily relies on non-locals. They make up half of the labour force. They work in different areas such as health, education, mining and other key sectors.
The recent attacks have created an after-shock in the mining and the construction industries which relies heavily on the labour force provided by the non-locals. They are worried of mass exodus by the workers should the insecurity persist and are now appealing to the government to provide security in the area.
But County Commissioner Fredrick Shisia dismissed the vacation orders saying “security was normal”.
Mr Shisia said strategies have been put in place to counter increasing terror incidents in the town.
In the meantime, Dyabala and his boys would have to provide for their families regardless of the situation.
