The powerful Garre Council of Elders has dropped all elected Mandera leaders to effect rotation of elective positions.
Those dropped include Governor Ali Roba and Senator Billow Kerrow in a move likely to put the elders on a collision course with the leaders.
According to the council, a new plan is expected to promote rotation of leadership among the 20 sub-clans making the larger Garre community.
In a meeting at Banisa town, the elders adopted a resolution that no sub-clan within the community will be allowed to hold one political seat for more than one term regardless of one's performance record.
The clan meeting, which started on August 6 and is expected to end on August 12, endorsed the rotation mode of sharing all political positions in the county. The major positions will rotate among the dominant Garre clan with minority clans expected to be given whatever remains of the spoil.
Announcing the elders' verdict, the council's chairman Maalim Ali Noor said they had agreed to the rotation of all political slots among the 20 sub-clans within the Garre community to avoid disunity and unnecessary jostling for specific positions such as the lucrative gubernatorial position.
There was intense lobbying between two political camps days to the meeting, with one camp supporting the current leadership, which advocated for retention of all the current leaders, while the other camp demanded rotation as a way of promoting fair sharing of positions.
Garre community, the largest in Mandera County, is mainly divided into Tuuf and Quranyua. The Tuuf are sub-divided into Ali and Adola, while Quranyua is divided into Furkesha and Asare.
Governor Roba sub-clan of Rer-Ali sub-clan will now have to forget the gubernatorial slot and provide a candidate to fill the position of member of Parliament for Mandera South, the position of county woman representative and the gubernatorial position.
It's not clear whether Governor Roba's sub-clan will propose him to take up the Mandera East MP slot as consolation now that his sub-clan can't defend the seat and neither can he go against the decision of the powerful clan elders, who enjoy fanatical support of the clan voters.
