Kenya Should Consider Pulling Its Soldiers Out Of Somalia

Kenyan woman says husband was shot by security forces. They thought he was a suspect in the attack at Westgate Mall in Nairobi., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Kenya Should Consider Pulling Its Soldiers Out Of Somalia

Oct 5, 2013
By Somalicurrent

However poor we are, we must not be in Somalia fighting terrorism as someone else’s proxy for money. Already, we have been told that European Union pays the Kenyan army Sh500 million every month to fight terrorism in Somalia.

During the Westgate terrorist attack on September 21, the al Shabaab announced that if Kenya were to pull its army out of Somalia, their terrorists attacks would cease.

On October 1, President Kenyatta answered them: “We went there to help them bring order in their own nation. Put your house in order and we will pull out,” he concluded. So should we, or should we not pull out of Somalia to be safe from the attacks of the al Shabaab?

When President Kibaki sent our army into Somalia, it was without debate, consultation with the public or national consensus. Used to being ruled by dictatorial decrees and edicts, Kenyans accepted the decision and moved on. But their silence would have consequences when aL Shabaab started hitting targets inside Kenya.

After Westgate, Kenyans should think twice before they ignore or accept their leaders’ decisions on making war against other countries or certain groups inside Kenya. They must realize that disinterest in public affairs and national problems, is like the proverbial rat trap that catches both targets and non targets.

When the president said the war against Somalia would continue, I remembered President Kibaki did not seek people’s mandate before sending our soldiers to Somalia. I also wondered who gave mandate to President Uhuru to continue the war against Somalia – Kenyans, Somalis or just himself. Even America and UK have sought mandate from their people to make war on Syria.

I also think President Uhuru’s statement was very paternalistic to Somalis. Supposing it was Somalian, Ugandan or Ethiopian President who said their country’s army would stay in Kenya until we put our house in order? Would we not consider this a violation of our sovereignty and vow to fight in its defense?

President Uhuru’s statement was also suspect of illogical. If your neighbours fight and beat their wives and children, you will take the wives and children in if they run to you for refuge.

But however much neighbours fight you don’t grab a panga and take over their bomas and houses, swearing to run them until they put their houses in order.

Even where a sister runs to a brother after a domestic fight, if the brother tries to take over the sister’s home, she, the husband and the children will unite to fight him. Worse, were every person to take over neighbours’ houses that are not in order, the world would be full of war.

One does not liberate neighbours by occupying their homes but by encouraging dialogue among them. If dialogue fails, you will secure your boma and leave them alone.

Though President Uhuru says we are in Somalia to fight for the good of Somalis, a house at war with itself can only be put into order by its owners not outsiders. In history, no person has liberated another. Liberation must always come from within.

Kenyan leaders have also said, Kenya is in Somalia to fight global terrorism. But Kenya cannot be world police against global terrorism. If we are to fight global terrorism and sustain the crusade, global community must share equally the cost of fighting the monster by contributing money, soldiers, casualties and efforts of ending the problem. It is not fair that US and European countries contribute only money when we contribute blood, life and properties to fight global terrorism.

However poor we are, we must not be in Somalia fighting terrorism as someone else’s proxy for money. Already, we have been told that European Union pays the Kenyan army Sh500 million every month to fight terrorism in Somalia.

In addition they pay for the training of our police, contribute Sh100 million to Red Cross and Sh3.2 billion to maintain Somali refugees who are in Kenya.

We must never fight a war for money. Only for reasons of conscience and survival like rebutting armed invasion or to end dictatorship that has attacked our freedom.

Nor should we be in Somalia to prove our manhood or we are not cowards. War is too serious a business to be fought for petty reasons. For many years, France and US waged war against a small Asian nation called Vietnam to prove their might and their courage against a small country they accused of harbouring a dangerous ideology of communism. Finally, despite the might of their military technology, Americans lost the war in Vietnam because they had wrong reasons for it.

America was also in Somalia and lost the war, again because they lacked moral superiority for the war. Unlike America, after independence, Kenya fought and won a war against Somalia wherein Somali guerillas called Shiftas were fighting for a Greater Somalia by annexing a part of Kenya.

Because Kenya had better reasons for defense than Somalia had for aggression, President Siad Barre pursued peace by renouncing Somalia’s claim to any part of Kenya. Then, Kenya wanted Somali Shiftas out of Kenya. Now Al Shabaab wants Kenyan army out of Somalia.

Ultimately, Westgate attack was a Godsend. The expedience of knowing and not knowing about it made it look untenable to prosecute Uhuru and Ruto at ICC when their campaign against it made them “generals” against world terrorism.

Terrorism is bad, but war is not its cure. To end global terrorism we must resort to the non-violence of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Those advocating more war must remember words of Mahatma Gandhi: “an eye for an eye will leave everyone blind.”


Westgate aftermath: Is KDF’s presence in Somalia a misadventure?

Oct 2, 2013
By Somalicurrent
BY ADOW MOHAMED

AS Kenya comes to terms with the gruesome Westgate attack that left 67 people dead and more than 200 injured, debate is raging on whether Kenya ought to withdraw its troops from Somalia or not.

Analysts are divided whether continued presence of the Kenya Defence Forces in Somalia threatens the peace and stability of the country.

Other leaders say time has come to ‘dismantle’ the terror gang that has wreaked havoc in the Eastern Africa region.

“We went as a nation to Somalia to fight the war against terror unleashed on Kenyan people, Somali people and people around the world,” Kenyatta said during his address to the nation hours after the Westgate attack. “This is not a Kenyan war, this is an international war.”

The former Prime Minister Raila Odinga said withdrawing forces from Somalia is out of question.

“We will not be intimidated or blackmailed by these desperate acts of terrorism because we did go to Somalia for a reason and that was to protect our own territorial integrity which was under threat.

We already had a lot of terrorist attacks before our troops went to Somalia.

Our presence in Somalia has helped to stabilise that country, we have weakened al-Shabaab substantially in Somalia and normalcy has returned to a very substantial portion of the Somali territory,” Odinga told South Africa’s eNCA last week.

He said al Shabaab insurgents are part of al Qaeda and must be defeated. “This is not an issue that can be eradicated overnight. It has a process, but the international community is determined to proceed with this and Kenya must play its part in this whole confrontation,” he said.

Edwin Murunga, the deputy director of the Africa Leadership Centre in Nairobi, said Kenya has no option but to remain the ‘central cog’ in the struggle to restore peace in the war-torn Somalia.

“There are historical reasons for this – in addition to the fact that Kenyan defense forces are already entrenched in Somalia. For better or worse, history connects Kenya intricately with East Africa in ways that are difficult, if not impossible, to separate. Not only is Kenya the gateway to several East African countries, some of them are Kenya’s main trading partners,” Murunga said in an opinion piece for CNN.

He said “Somalia’s security and political history have become a part and parcel of Kenya’s socio-economic reality”.

The presence of KDF in Somalia has dominated debate for the past one year, with some questioning whether it is in the best interest of the country’s homeland security.

Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow said despite the weakening of al Shabaab by the Kenya forces and the African Union Mission in Somalia, attacks have escalated against Kenya over the last two years. “What are we doing in Somalia? We went in ostensibly to get the terrorists who kidnapped tourists and aid workers in Kenya, and threatened our security.

So, if KDF has killed hundreds of the terrorists and pushed them far into Somalia, why are we still in Kismayu?” he posed in his weekly column in the Standard on Sunday last week.

“Or worse still, rather than decline, why have terrorist attacks escalated? Have we lost our purported ‘aim’ of going into Somalia and ended up focusing on side issues?” he pondered.

He termed Kenya’s incursion into Somalia on October 16, 2011 as a ‘misadventure’ informed by ‘other political expediencies’. “Since 9/11, the US spends billions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries to keep terrorists off their soil and seem to have succeeded.

We have spent billions since October 2011 on our KDF forces in Somalia but have only succeeded in transferring more terrorists onto our soil,” Kerrow said. He said Kenya should first police its own towns before engaging in external wars.

Kenya sent its troops into the Horn of Africa nation following attacks and kidnappings of tourists in North Eastern and the Coastal regions. Kenya Defence Forces with Amisom forces defeated the militant group and dislodged them out of the port city of Kismayu, a town that was its main economic mainstay.

In return, al Shabaab has vowed to ‘teach Kenya a lesson’. It has since claimed responsibility for many attacks in the country which led to the loss of many lives including the latest Westgate Mall attack.

“What does Kenya have to do with the mess in Somalia to attract al Shabaab’s wrath?” asked Abdi Ismail Samatar, a professor of geography at the University of Minnesota.

Prof Samatar said Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia has given al Shabaab an excuse to export its terror. He alleged that although most Somalis welcomed the liberation of Kismayu from al Shabaab, they were dismayed that Kenya did not behave as other AMISOM forces in the country’.

“Most Somalis originally thought Kenya had been a benign neighbour since the collapse of the Somali state in 1991, but Somali feelings have hardened since the occupations and consider Kenya as a hostile government. Unfortunately, the terrorist group, al Shabaab, wants to exploit these legitimate Somali grievances against the government of Kenya. But most Somalis loathe what al Shabaab stands for and the atrocities it has visited on innocent people in Kenya, Somalia and others in the region,” said Samatar who is also the President of the African Studies Association in an article published on Aljazeera website.

Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York last week, the Somali Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fouziyo Yusuf Hajji Adan, said despite the latest attack on Kenya, the crisis would not force Kenyan troops out of Somalia. ”Al Shabaab represents an aggression against humanity. It is an invasion against the Eastern Africa region and must be defeated in unanimity,” she said.

Al Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane said Kenya will ‘live to regret’ if it fails to withdraw its forces from Somalia. “We tell the Kenyan public: You have entered into a war that is not yours and is serving against your national interests,” Godane alias Abu Zubeir or ‘The Emir of al Shabaab’ said.

“You have voluntarily given up on your security and economy and lost many of your sons,” Godane said in a video message posted on You Tube with English sub-titles. “So make your choice today and withdraw all your forces from Somalia, otherwise be prepared for an abundance of blood that will be spilt in your country, economic downfall and displacement,” said Godane, whom Washington has put a $7million (Sh602 million) bounty on his head.

Kenya has borne the largest number of attacks among the countries that have its troops in Somalia. Uganda has suffered twin bombings in 2010, which killed 74 people in an attack targeted on football fans during the World Cup finals. Al Shabaab claimed responsibility. “Uganda is one of our enemies. Whatever makes them cry makes us happy,” Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, an al Shabaab spokesperson, said then.

Analysts say the Westgate siege attack was meant to send a message that al Shabaab is alive and retains the capacity to strike beyond Somalia borders.

The United States and other nations pulled out of Somalia 20 years ago after 18 American soldiers were brutally killed in what was called the “Black Hawk Down” incident. “Black Hawk Down” has since been acted as a movie.

BY ADOW MOHAMED

Source: www.the-star.co.ke