In 2009 two foreign aid workers were kidnapped by Somali gunmen who demanded a ransom of 4 million US dollars for their release but two weeks later they released them without a ransom payment.
The two aid workers from Holland and Belgium were released by the gunmen and arrived safely in Nairobi when local elders from the gang members’ sub-clan and local Islamist officials elders held negotiations.
What most people don’t know is that traditional forms of justice continue to play an important role along the Kenya-Somalia border, supplementing government systems, and at times even replacing them.
It has now emerged that Kenyan Somali elders’ are on a mission to negotiate the release of two abducted Cuban doctors with their counterparts in Somalia a process that could be successful.
But do you know why the elders are so powerful to go to enemy lines without fear of being attacked by the militia?
Like in other African communities, Somalis have an age-old tradition whereby elders provide homegrown reconciliatory solutions.
There is an unwritten law that elders should not be harmed under any circumstances, which makes it easier for the group from Mandera to enter an Al- Shabaab zone without fear of being attacked.
One can join this group only after attaining the age of 60 and must be of good character. One must also be rich to join this special, powerful club.
Mr Abdullahi Abdi, a Somali elder who also chairs the National Muslim Leaders Forum, told the Nation that elders play a visible role in the community’s institutional make-up.
He says that as clan representatives, elders are often assumed to wield power that can be used to elicit responses from State administrators.
“Since time immemorial, the existence of functioning traditional institutions, such as the Somali Elders’ Council in Kenya and Somalia, has been fundamental. They have played important developmental, administrative and political roles in rural areas,” Mr Abdi says.
“They have consolidated their traditional role as dispute mediators and enforcers of customary laws, which regulate most aspects of social life within Somali clans,” he adds.
Mr Abdi further notes that given the central position of traditional structures in the Somali community, the elders’ role is critical in relations between clans, conflict resolution, resource sharing, and the rule of law.
Selection to the council varies between the two countries, but generally depends on experience, oratory skills, impartiality, ability to compromise and persuade, expertise in xeer (customary law) and religious knowledge.
Mr Ahmed Set, the national treasurer of the National Council of Elders, says Islam does not advocate violent extremism. “We have a strong network of elders in the North-Eastern region that promotes alternative dispute resolutions,” he said.
Meanwhile, the government has again called on the international community to rally behind efforts to combat terror.