The North Eastern Province (Somali: Gobolka Woqooyi Bari) is one of the former provinces in Kenya. It has a land area of 127,358.5 km2, with its capital at Garissa. Previously known as the Northern Frontier District (NFD), the territory was carved out of the Jubaland region of present-day southern Somalia during the colonial period.[1] It is and has historically been exclusively inhabited by ethnic Somalis.[2][3]
The Northern Frontier District came into being in 1925, when it was carved out of the Jubaland region in present-day southern Somalia.[1] At the time under British colonial administration, the northern half of Jubaland was ceded to Italy as a reward for the Italians' support of the Allies during World War I.[4] Britain retained control of the southern half of the territory, which was later called the Northern Frontier District (subsequently renamed the North Eastern Province).[1]

On 26 June 1960, four days before granting British Somaliland independence, the British government declared that all Somali-inhabited areas of East Africa should be unified in one administrative region. However, after the dissolution of the former British colonies in the region, Britain granted administration of the Northern Frontier District to Kenyan nationalists despite an informal plebiscite demonstrating the overwhelming desire of the region's population to join the newly formed Somali Republic,[5] and the fact that the NFD was almost exclusively inhabited by ethnic Somalis.[6]