When Halima Abdi leaves Mandera for Somalia’s Beled Hawo each morning to restock her kiosk, she doesn’t see foreign soldiers or security threats. She sees her cousin’s wholesale shop, a place that feels almost like home. On her mind are her daughter’s school fees and tea leaves and coffee for her customers.The road she uses is labeled by politicians as a “high-risk zone,” but it’s a familiar path for her and her grandmother, one they have walked for decades, long before political boundaries were established. On the other side, her cousin, Rashid Abdalla, waits with an old, torn notebook in hand. He records all the foodstuffs Halima collects and the amount owed. Goods move first; payment is made weekly or monthly, depending on what she took. “Goods coming from Nairobi are expensive, and it takes a long time to get here,” Halima says. “If I want to make a little extra, my best bet is foodstuffs from Somalia despite the recent taxes. They are still cheaper.” Depending on the day of the week, she resells to her neighbors and local cereal shops.Like her, small-scale traders and residents of Mandera cross into Somalia with their donkey carts to buy foodstuffs. The Mandera-Beled Hawo route facilitates the movement of goods, including maize, rice, cooking oil, sugar, beans, sorghum, and tea. On a normal week, according to the Rift Valley Institute, approximately 45 to 125 tonnes of goods are transported in donkey carts and trucks. Some of the load is documented by customs, but the majority slips through informal routes like the one Halima uses. The unrecorded goods keep businesses running on both sides.Zainab Abdalla, another Mandera resident and a member of Halima’s informal rotating savings group—known locally as a chama—says, “I cross every month for food and clothes. I am saving every coin from my chama for my son’s schooling starting next year.” After she lost her job in August 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nakuru County, she returned home, and this women’s savings group gave her a fresh start. She has since set up a retail shop selling daily items.The chama comprises six women saving 500 Kenyan shillings (approximately $4) weekly. They ensure they have that amount, sending it to one of the six members on a rotating basis. Every two weeks, they meet at one of their houses, share a meal, and talk about their individual and the chama’s future plans. Whenever there is tension in the area, their transactions continue unaffected with the help of the mobile money transfer service M-PESA. The designated recipient still receives their share of money.Despite recent reports of Jubaland military forces allegedly entering Kenya’s Mandera County in August 2025, triggering political confrontations between Nairobi and the opposition, residents like Halima and Zainab navigate a different reality. Business is about the people, not just profits. Halima admits there are fewer kinsmen in Somalia compared to Ethiopia, but for the few familiar faces across the border, trust was built through intermarriages and passed from one generation to another. “They are just like us. I mean, we all want peace,” she says.The political backdrop to these daily crossings is complex. In November 2024, Ahmed Mohamed Islam was re-elected as president of Jubaland for his third five-year term, defeating two opponents backed by Somalia’s federal government. The federal government in Mogadishu has expressed concern about the growing influence of the semi-autonomous Jubaland region, creating tensions that occasionally spill across the Kenya-Somalia border.“The confrontation occurs because Somalia’s federal government fears the growing influence of the re-elected president of Jubaland,” says Simba Burhanudin, a resident of Mandera. He explains that President Islam, a former member of Al Shabaab who later broke with the militant group, defeated his two federally backed opponents, Feisal Abdi Matan and Abubakar Abdi Hassan.Many Mandera residents say they live without fear of the Jubaland forces. “Jubaland forces were trained and have a close working relationship with the Kenya Defence Forces,” Burhanudin says. “Their cooperation is to fight terror.” He explains that most residents understand that the KDF welcomed the Jubaland forces due to concerns about being overpowered by the Somalia federal forces, although this is rarely discussed publicly for security reasons. The forces helped the KDF in their 2011 mission to degrade the Al Shabaab Islamist group in Somalia, creating a buffer zone between Kenya and Somalia.During the August 2025 confrontation, Halima notes that there was significant tension in certain areas, causing fatalities and forcing women and children to flee for safety. “You could tell who was who,” she says. “They didn’t carry AK-47s, but you know they are armed.” The primary concern among Jubaland forces before they withdrew, she says, was preventing war from breaking out in Kenya.According to a humanitarian report published by ReliefWeb, the confrontations began in July 2025, causing 16 fatalities and nine people injured by stray bullets. In addition, around 500 families fled across the border into Kenya, settling in three temporary camps, and two grenades landed on Kenyan soil, causing panic among the residents.
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