VZCZCXRO6380
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHNR #2072 1360503
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 160503Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY NAIROBI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9697
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS NAIROBI 002072 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ASEC ET KE KPAO PGOV PHUM PINR
SUBJECT: KENYA & ETHIOPIA ENHANCE BORDER COOPERATION 
 
REF: 06 NAIROBI 4313 
 
Note:  This message was cleared with Embassy Addis Ababa. 
End Note. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Kenya and Ethiopia are enhancing 
coordination at the local level in the border region to 
better manage cross-border security issues involving the 
Borana/Oromo and Gabra communities.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) PolCouns met with Sheikh Abdinassir, a former 
International Visitor grantee, to discuss security issues in 
Kenya's Isiolo, Moyale and Marsabit districts bordering 
Ethiopia.  Abdinassir is an influential Muslim cleric and 
scholar among Kenya's Borana ethnic group.  The Borana make 
up about one percent of Kenya's population and about ten 
percent of Kenya's Muslims.  They occupy about 20 percent of 
Kenyan territory in the dry, pastoralist and historically 
neglected north central part of the country.  The Borana are 
closely related to Ethiopia's Oromo community.  They are 
often in conflict with the Gabra over scarce resources.  The 
Gabra and Borana are both pastoralists and are close 
socio-linguistic cousins.  The Gabra, outnumbered by the 
Borana within Kenya, often call for reinforcements from their 
ethnic brethren in Ethiopia during times of conflict. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Abdinassir related coordinated efforts by Ethiopian 
and Kenyan officials to dissuade Borana elders in Kenya from 
supporting Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) militants (an 
Ethiopian rebel group).  Many Kenyan Borana traditional 
leaders attended a pastoralist conference in Yabelo, southern 
Ethiopia in April.  At that conference, according to 
Abdinassir, Ethiopian Borana/Oromo leaders emphasized that 
significant new development resources were coming into their 
region negating the need for OLF militancy. 
 
¶4. (SBU) These Kenyan Borana leaders told Abdinassir that 
they would attempt to rein in the OLF militants who take 
refuge in their villages on the Kenyan side of the border, 
but that they would not be able to disarm them.  The leaders 
pointed out to Abdinassir that they have little or no control 
over armed fighters since they themselves are unarmed.  A 
truce is the best they can manage. 
 
¶5. (SBU)  Abdinassir cited the Gabra-Borana blood feud as a 
second reason for the OLF fighters retaining their arms. 
Flare ups of fighting between these two communities often 
result in each community receiving reinforcements from their 
Ethiopian relations.  OLF fighters in Kenya serve as village 
and livestock defense forces in Borana-land. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Abdinassir also referred to a recent meeting in 
Embu, Kenya between Ethiopian and Kenyan provincial 
officials.  (Embu is the provincial capital of Eastern 
province, which includes the Borana- and Gabra-inhabited 
districts of Isiolo, Marsabit and Moyale.)  Press reports 
identify the heads of the two delegations as acting 
Provincial Commissioner for Eastern Province David Jakaiti 
for Kenya and Regional Administrator of the Borana Zone 
Abdulkadil Abdi for Ethiopia.  According to Jakaiti, the 
officials sought to better coordinate efforts to prevent 
cross-border raids (Gabra versus Borana).  Abdinasser insists 
that curbing OLF activity was also on the agenda. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Kenyan provincial officials in Moyale complained to 
PolCouns in July 2006 about "hostile and uncooperative" 
Ethiopian provincial officials (reftel).  PolCouns observed 
tense relations between Ethiopian and Kenyan border officials 
at Moyale at that time.  Abdinassir mentioned that over the 
past six months, cooperation at the local level has much 
improved.  The practical effect of improved relations at the 
local level is that Kenyan and Ethiopian residents of the 
border region are now able to use official crossing points to 
access markets and visit relations much more freely than in 
the past, no longer needing to cross at remote points to 
avoid unwelcoming officials. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Comment: The District Commissioner of Moyale quipped 
to PolCouns that relations between Nairobi and Addis Ababa 
are always closer than relations between Moyale, Kenya and 
Moyale, Ethiopia.  It appears, however, that close 
coordination over the past several months between the two 
countries' foreign and security ministries on IGAD and Somali 
issues may be seeping down to local level officials to good 
effect. 
 
RANNEBERGER