Turbi massacre

The Kenya-Turbi City massacre was the killing of fifty-six people by feuding clans in the remote Marsabit District of Northern Kenya on the early morning of 12 July 2005.

Hundreds of armed raiders of the Borana tribe attacked the Gabra people living in the Turbi area northwest of Marsabit.

While the two clans had coexisted, they would encounter violent inter-clan conflicts consisting of resource disputes and cattle raiding practices typical of the region.

January 2003, the three-year period of escalation within clan relations, Kenyan President Mwaki Kibaki,visited the Madera region in northeastern Kenya, criticizing the reparation system laid out by the Modogashe Declaration.

His comments reduced the effectiveness of a system that de-escalated inter-clan conflicts, eventually leading to the District MP dissolving the Modogashe Declaration.

This sparked several more violent attacks, culminating with a series of raids conducted by around one thousand Borana bandits on Gabra villages surrounding Turbi on July 12, 2005.

This transfer, especially in the crossing of Ethiopian Borana into Kenya, increased the interethnic animosity, as conflict, or instead, difference, was not limited to the ethnic lines but the intersection of national identity.

Turbi, the site of the massacre, while formally a part of Marsabit District, a primarily Gabra region, was considered a disputed territory, further fueling the tension in the area.

MPs, or members of Parliament, local to the region have utilized the dispute as political fuel, promising their constituents the return of the remain of Turbi to either Moyale or Marsabit.

Similar to the series of skirmishes leading to the massacre, the Gabra responded to the violence with an attack on ten Borana in Bubisa, Kenya.

Gabra attackers stormed a church vehicle driven by an Italian priest, removing and killing the Borana, including four children.

Northern Kenya has long been subjected to gross neglect by the government, failing to provide adequate security and lacking the concern to do so.

The government has long failed to develop the region, allowing for political, economic, and social instability and fostering a culture of violence and lawlessness.