Somalia in Kenya — a camel-market city in the dry north where Somali pastoral culture has its own quiet capital
Wajir is the principal city of Kenya's North Eastern County, an overwhelmingly Somali-inhabited region that was a separate colonial entity called the Northern Frontier District and nearly became part of Somalia at independence. The town has the feel of a Somali city that happens to be in Kenya: signage is in Somali and Arabic alongside English and Swahili, tea shops serve shaax (Somali spiced tea), and the largest economic activities are trade in miraa (khat), camels, and goods from Eastleigh — Nairobi's Somali business district. Wajir's camel market, held in the predawn hours north of town,…
Wajir was an important watering point on the caravan routes between the Somali coast and the East African interior — the town's wells (the name Wajir is related to the Somali word for water) were known across the region. British colonial incorporation of the Northern Frontier District was achieved only in the 1920s and always remained shallow; the 1963 independence plebiscite in which Somali-majority residents voted overwhelmingly to join Somalia was ignored by both the British and Kenyan authorities. The subsequent Shifta War of 1963-67 — a Somali separatist insurgency — resulted in serious…