Residents of Mogadishu flocked the city’s beach for the first time in three years on Eid day. Picture by: Xinhua
Every morning, at about 10 am, Sergeant Felton Tolle hoists his heavy G3 rifle, puts on his heavy green helmet and stashes a stethoscope in one of his jacket pockets.
Sgt Tolle is part of the Kenya Defence Forces contingent stationed on the hill overlooking Ras Kamboni, the fishing village that was taken by KDF on Mashujaa Day, October 12.
The soldiers have been patrolling Ras Kamboni every day since Al Shaabab fled the village and are joined on their rounds by soldiers from the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia.
As the rest of the soldiers walk around and chat with the local fishermen, now idle because of the ban on fishing and travel to Kenya, the main market for their fish, Sgt Tolle enters people’s houses.
He told The EastAfrican that when the soldiers first arrived here, and he began his rounds, dispensing medicine and deciphering the Kiswahili spoken by the Bajuni to understand the nature of their illnesses, the villagers were afraid of him.
“Some were pleasantly surprised at the medicine I was giving them. They were not comfortable with the people who had been treating them before,” he said.
“But it took some time, talking with the local people, before they felt comfortable enough to open up about their problems when we called on them,” he added.
It is not often that a nurse has to prop his gun against the wall to inject a patient, or even wear an intimidating helmet that is the permanent head gear of the forces.
Sgt Tolle is simply living up to the universal principles of his profession, but the forces see his job as crucial if they are secure the co-operation of their Somali hosts.
The medical assistance he offers is part of the KDF’s effort to win the hearts and minds of the Somalis in the hope that they will see them not as a foreign invading and occupying force but as their rescuers from the harsh dictates of Al Shabaab.
That the residents of Ras Kamboni village and other areas need the medical and food aid is not in doubt.
Southern Somalia was among the areas hit hardest hit by the drought that the ravaged most of the Horn of Africa for the past two years, meaning little or no farming was done.
At Ras Kamboni, basic medical aid was offered by Athman Bwana, who runs a poorly stocked pharmacy and depends on his six months of training with the International Red Cross to diagnose simple illnesses.
The diseases he could not diagnose he treated with the juice of the boiled leaves of the Neem tree, locally known as Mkilifi by the local Bajuni people and Muarubaini in other parts of the country.
Throw into this mix the low education levels and the little contact with the rest of the world — it is two days by boat from Ras Kamboni to Kismayu and a long way down to Lamu and Mombasa — and the bigger problem becomes a little clearer.
Humanitarian
KDF also has to offer humanitarian assistance if they are to learn anything about the enemy, which like the outlawed Mungiki in Kenya, lives and operates almost civilians, remaining faceless but deadly.
Residents of Ras Kamboni and Bur Gabo told The EastAfrican it was not easy to tell Al Shabaab militiamen from the civilians.
Having lived under different authorities since the fall of Siad Barre’s government in 1991, the villagers have also learnt not to get on the wrong side of men with guns.
This makes it difficult to walk up to a villager and chat them up on Al Shabaab, and how they feel now that the latter are gone, and they can enjoy more freedom.
The fishermen claim they spent most of their time out in the sea, but concede that they paid informal taxes to Al Shabaab to ply their trade, while the women and girls mostly stay indoors.
It is difficult to keep the children in check, though, and they offer a clue to how the rest feel when the soldiers come around for the patrols.
The soldiers seem to have realised this, and appeared only too happy to share whatever they can of their “dry rat” in the form of chocolates, sweets, high energy biscuits and powdered juice.
The soldiers also hand out coffee sachets, tea bags and powdered milk to adults especially the elderly.
The coastal communities like their cup of tea or coffee and the last time The EastAfrican accompanied the soldiers on patrol, an old man stopped them and requested they bring him some of the goodies next time.
Being friends with the villagers also offers the forces an opportunity to listen and sniff out militia sympathisers who could be spying for Al Shaabab.
A month after the village was taken over, the residents have become more familiar and friendlier with Sgt Tolle and the rest of the soldiers.
A makeshift clinic quickly forms when he visits the village, with a variety of illnesses presented for him to deal with.
Sgt Tolle said most of the children he has seen are malnourished.
Aid agencies were prevented by Al Shabaab from offering assistance to these communities. They are yet to come back despite the current relative calm.
Maj Seif S. Rashid, second in command of the Southern Sector in which Ras Kamboni falls, said the army’s initial assessment indicated that the residents urgently needed food and medicine.
“We shall continue to provide the medical aid, although it is limited, and we are also planning to bring in some relief food,” he said.
He said more needs to be done, as the primary aim of the Kenya Defence Forces is to go after Al Shabaab, with the provision of food and medicine being part of secondary efforts to win over the hearts and minds of the people.
Normal life
Al Shabaab made it impossible for people to enjoy even the simplest pleasures of life such as playing board games, chewing miraa or watching the English Premier League on satellite TV. These days young men have resumed soccer practice at the grounds below the hill.
The soldiers made arrangements to have a friendly match between the two sides — but the one such match was called off at the eleventh hour last Tuesday.
It turned out that the KDF bosses were uncomfortable with the match and asked for patience from the youths.
These fears underline the cautious friendliness between the soldiers, who shake the children’s hands with one hand on the guns, and the young men, some of whom still keep a safe distance.
This cautious relationship extends to the fishermen, who are out of work because of the ban on fishing and movement across the border into Kenya.
This is meant to stop illegal transportation of weapons for Al Shaabab cells in the rest of the region.
In the long term, the KDF says it will allow the fishermen to resume their trade to revive the economy, since Kenya is where most of the fish is sold, and also allow other civilians such as housewife Khadija to sell her ornamental sea shells in Kenya.
But the TFG soldiers will oversee the resumption of normal economic activities through a regulatory and licensing system.
The system would require security checks of all cargo and the identities of all persons documented.
It would also mean that Kenyans crossing over to Ras Kamboni would be similarly regulated, and the cross-border movement would not be as casual as it was in the past.
In the meantime, before full order is restored, and a semblance of a government is set up, the Kenya Defence Forces will have to keep up their attempts to win over the hearts and minds of the Somali people.
