04/10/2025
Political Overreach and the Erosion of Communal Trust: Extra-Territorial Intrusions and Their Consequences in Khalalio Sub-County
By Ibrahim Hish
I neither claim the mantle of politician nor harbour aspirations toward that vocation. Yet, as an educationist and custodian of communal responsibility, I feel compelled to offer counsel when youthful leaders within our community overstep the bounds of prudent political conduct.
A Somali proverb offers timeless wisdom: A young man’s leap from advice resembles a leap from a tree—inevitable injury follows. These reflections are not literary indulgences aimed at personal vilification, but a scholarly attempt to highlight the dangers of political miscalculation when it threatens our social fabric.
Recent developments have transmuted Khalalio Sub-County in Mandera East Constituency into an improbable political contestation theatre—drawing actors with no legitimate claim to its stage.
As predominant settlers of Khalalio, the Corner Tripe community has sustained a documented pattern of supporting Murulle parliamentary candidates across successive electoral cycles.
While periodically advancing their own aspirants, electoral victory has been elusive. This enduring political architecture has rested upon foundations of reciprocal trust cultivated among the Corner Tripe, Dagodia, and Garre communities—an intercommunal covenant now subjected to unprecedented strain.
What unsettles the present landscape are deliberate efforts to weaponize Khalalio as an instrument for political rivalry. During the sub-county launch ceremony sometime in April this year, rather than celebrating unity, tolerance, and fidelity to shared customs within this relatively homogeneous county, the event was hijacked as a platform for character vilification.
Strikingly, the most scathing rhetoric did not originate from Mandera East’s elected representative—under whose jurisdiction Khalalio falls—but from political outsiders with no legitimate mandate there. This represents a troubling departure from established norms of representation.
Equally concerning was the recent installation of a traditional leader within a Corner sub-clan. The ceremony, intended as a cultural reaffirmation, was conspicuously attended by Members of Parliament from constituencies far removed from Mandera East.
Their presence sparked unease within the Corner Tripe community, who interpreted it as a calculated attempt to fracture their political cohesion for external advantage.
This timing proves particularly insidious: the Corner Tripe community presently labours to consolidate internal unity and repair fractured political relationships—efforts essential to securing their rightful representation and equitable access to developmental opportunities.
Any overtures seeking their political allegiance must therefore proceed on level ground, respecting rather than exploiting their current vulnerability. Whispers abound that these interlopers are pilfering unverified resources to entrench political footholds in Khalalio.
Such manoeuvres prompt pointed questions: Is this merely a vendetta against an emerging Mandera East parliamentary candidate, or do these leaders comprehend how their interventions corrode the historic goodwill extended by local communities toward Murulle candidacies?
Political maturity is demonstrated not by reckless expansion, but by consolidation—uniting one’s base, healing the wounds of past contests, and fortifying internal solidarity. Strategic outreach to other regions can only be effective once this foundation is secure. To expend political energy in territories where one wields no legitimate authority, while neglecting one’s own constituency, is akin to chasing a rat while one’s house burns—an act of dangerous miscalculation.
True political acumen acknowledges its own limits. Missteps in strategy rarely remain isolated; they reverberate outward, inflicting damage upon the entire community. Displays of disrespect, political overreach, and shallow theatrics of influence carry consequences that extend far beyond their immediate architects.
The exigency of this moment compels us to counsel our youthful parliamentary members to cultivate humility, seek guidance from responsible elders, and submit to collective wisdom. Recalcitrance may bring fleeting applause from opportunistic audiences, but in the long run, it threatens to extract a political cost our community cannot afford to bear.
Finally, the practice of recruiting and bankrolling proxy candidates from within the community—deployed as spoilers to obstruct legitimate contenders in the service of personal grievance—warrants urgent reconsideration. Such tactics sacrifice communal political capital on the altar of individual vendetta.
