What could be said, however, with some degree of confidence was that the breach between Britain and the Republic need not have occurred. This, of course, is not to make the facile and uncomprehending judgement that the Somali Republic acted too precipitately: but rather to suggest that the British government acted too indecisively and too slowly. For several years prior to the 1962 Kenya conference, the Provincial Administration of the N.F.D. had consistently reported on the direction and strength of Somali feeling. Had these reports received serious attention it would clearly have been possible for the British government to have prepared the ground for the eventual secession of the N.F.D. without, at that stage, incurring serious opposition from African opinion in Kenya.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 481