Kenya's Somalis fret over homeland

NAIROBI, Dec 29 (Reuters) In the rowdy cafes of a Nairobi neighbourhood, ethnic Somalis huddle around a radio, anxious for news about Mogadishu a day after it fell from Islamist hands into the shaky control of government and Ethiopian forces.

As the crackle of the latest bulletin fades, the voices rise among the group of elders with henna-dyed beards and youngsters chewing the narcotic qat leaf.

Shouting, interrupting each other, gesticulating passionately, they discussed the latest news over steaming glasses of sweetened tea.

Nairobi's Eastleigh enclave is a ''little Somalia'', complete with a market which one bystander compared to Mogadishu's notorious Bakara market where anything can be acquired for a price, from clothes to foreign passports and guns.

''South Somalia is split between those who want a government and those who want sharia law. But still no one wants the Ethiopians,'' exclaimed Ahmed Mohamed.

The 35-year-old fled Mogadishu with his family in 1991, the year warlords ousted military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre before carving the Horn of Africa country into a patchwork of personal fiefdoms, ruled by the law of the gun.

Years of clan-based fighting and cycles of famine and floods have forced hundreds of thousands of Somalis to flee with some 1,60,000 ending up in camps in neighbouring Kenya.

Many in Eastleigh credited the Islamists who captured Mogadishu from US-backed warlords six months ago for using sharia law to bring stability to the anarchic capital, and getting rid of the hated checkpoints manned by warlord militias.

But they were bitter about Ethiopia's presence in their homeland to defend an interim government battling to restore central rule to Somalia in a test of its legitimacy.

''Most people believe in the Islamic Courts here in Eastleigh.

They have radical elements, sure,'' said Jamal Ahmed.

''But this war is about Ethiopian national interests such as a friendly government which allows them access to the sea and Ethiopian-Somali animosity since 1977,'' he added, recalling the 1977-78 war in which Ethiopia's army crushed Somali troops who tried to lay claim to the ethnically Somali Ogaden region.

As government forces tightened their hold of Mogadishu today, many Somalis in Eastleigh wondered what lay in store.

''The Islamic Courts brought peace but they did not know how to lead. We need a government who can lead all the Somali people,'' said Shariff Ziyad, a muezzin who calls the faithful to prayer from one of Eastleigh's mosques.

Hassan Mahmud, 25, drawing nods of agreement from the gathering crowd, added: ''The Transitional Federal Government is not a legitimate government in the eyes of the Somalis.

''Since they let in Ethiopian troops, they lost all legitimacy.

We need a Somali government.'' Reuters PDM VV1800