Kenya’s Mandera governor alleges Jubaland forces seized school, displacing students

Kenyan Governor Demands Pullout of Jubaland Troops From Mandera, Citing Threat to Sovereignty

NAIROBI — Tension along Kenya’s northeastern frontier flared Friday as Mandera Governor Mohamed Adan Khalif accused Somalia’s Jubaland forces of setting up inside Mandera Town and demanded their immediate withdrawal, warning that the incursion endangered residents and tested Kenya’s sovereignty.

Speaking at a public gathering in the border county where Kenya meets both Somalia and Ethiopia, Khalif said a group of Jubaland fighters had taken over BP1 Primary School, shutting it down just as students prepare for national exams. He urged Nairobi to act swiftly, calling on Defence Cabinet Secretary Roselinda Tuya to intervene, and cautioned that residents could resort to self-help if the government failed to remove the alleged foreign contingent.

“Mandera cannot be turned into a battleground for Somalia,” the governor said, insisting the town wants only peace. He also criticized what he described as tacit support from elements of the Kenya Defence Forces for the Jubaland units and urged Ethiopia not to use Mandera as a staging point for operations linked to Somalia. “You cannot close schools, farms and water points to back a faction across the border,” he said.

His remarks were quickly echoed by local leaders. Woman Representative Umulkheir Kassim condemned the reported conversion of the school into what she called a militia training ground, warning of panic and displacement among families. Senator Ali Roba added in a post on X that fear had taken hold in Mandera after stray fire struck Kenyan soil in recent days, writing that “no citizen should have to live like this.”

Jubaland’s leadership has denied the claims. Earlier this month, Jubaland Vice President Mohamed Sayid said its security forces — known as the Darawiish — remained on their side of the border and were focused on protecting the frontier from al-Shabaab, Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked insurgency. Officials in Kismayo maintain that their units do not cross into Kenya.

FILE PHOTO — Mandera Governor Mohamed Adan Khalif addresses reporters during a past briefing in Mandera. Khalif has demanded the withdrawal of Jubaland troops allegedly stationed inside the county, warning their presence threatens Kenya’s sovereignty and endangers residents.

Border Town on Edge

Mandera sits at a fragile tri-border where a single misfire can rattle three countries. On a normal day, the town’s rhythm is shared: Somali traders cross for fuel and food; Kenyan matatus shuttle teachers and nurses; Ethiopian herders move with the light. Those patterns fray quickly when guns come out upriver in Beled-Hawo or Dolow, the Somali towns directly opposite Mandera. In the past few years, clashes across that line have spilled over in frightening bursts — stray bullets, falling shells, and sudden closures that bring daily life to a halt.

Shutting a public primary school in such a place is not merely an inconvenience. It throws families into uncertainty at the most delicate moment of the academic year, and it risks normalizing the militarization of spaces that should be sacred — classrooms, taps, farms. The governor’s message taps into a raw nerve in border communities from West Africa to South Asia: when state and proxy forces jostle at the edge, it’s children, small traders, and patients on the way to clinic who absorb the shock first.

What’s at Stake for Kenya

Kenya has long viewed Jubaland, the semi-autonomous region of southern Somalia led by Ahmed Mohamed Islam “Madobe,” as a buffer against al-Shabaab’s incursions. The Darawiish grew from the Ras Kamboni movement that battled the insurgency and later helped stabilize space around Kismayo, a port city crucial to southern Somalia’s security and economy. Nairobi’s support for Jubaland has often been framed as a pragmatic hedge: better to forward-defend in Somalia than fight in Kenyan towns and camps.

But that calculus is increasingly unpopular in Mandera and other northern counties. Local leaders argue the policy risks pulling Kenyan communities into Somalia’s internal rivalries, with little accountability when things go wrong. As the African Union’s mission in Somalia winds down and Somali security forces take on more responsibility, the border has become even more sensitive. Add to this the cooling of relations between Mogadishu and some of its neighbors and the tri-border’s complexity deepens. In such a context, even the perception that one side is using Kenyan territory to support operations across the frontier can detonate domestic politics.

The allegations this week cut to the core of a basic principle: who controls the gun and where. If foreign fighters have indeed established a camp in Mandera Town, it raises serious legal and diplomatic questions for Nairobi. If they have not, and the fears are fueled by misinformation, then the state has a duty to verify quickly and calm the waters with facts, not ambiguity.

Nairobi’s Balancing Act

Kenya’s Defence Ministry had not issued a public statement by the time of publication. The government now faces a double challenge — shoring up trust in a border county that often feels neglected, while not unraveling relationships with allies in Somalia that Kenyan security planners still consider essential to counter al-Shabaab. It’s a narrow bridge and one that successive administrations have struggled to cross.

Transparent communication would help: a joint verification team, a visit by senior officials, or access for national media to the alleged site at BP1 Primary School. These are basic steps that can lower the temperature and demonstrate that civilian life outranks war-footing in strategic decisions. Meanwhile, humanitarian priorities — reopening schools, securing water points, keeping clinics operating — should be non-negotiable.

The Wider Trend

Borderlands worldwide are becoming the testing ground for uneasy partnerships and proxy arrangements. From northern Syria to eastern Ukraine to the Sahel, governments have outsourced pieces of security to local allies across the line. Sometimes it works; often it backfires, especially when fighters cross into sovereign territory or when civilians shoulder the weight of open-ended “temporary” deployments.

Kenya’s experience in Mandera holds a mirror to that pattern. For a decade, the country has tried to prevent the war in Somalia from seeping into its towns while maintaining leverage over the outcomes next door. The question now is whether that strategy can survive without stronger guardrails protecting civilians — and clear red lines about where the border begins and ends.

On a dusty morning in Mandera, the border is not a line on a map but the school gate, the market stall, the borehole. The people living next to it need fewer armed men and more predictability. As Kenya considers its next move, one priority should be simple: let the pupils taking exams return to their desks, and let the politics be fought somewhere else.

By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.