Learn from our neighbours
A Kenyan student now @ Kings Collerge, with NGO experience, has a short article 'Learning from the neighbours: How to win Kenya’s war on terror'. It is of value as it is by a Kenyan:http://strifeblog.org/2014/06/07/lea...war-on-terror/
Quote:
By looking at comparative efforts made by Uganda and Ethiopia to scuttle terrorist activities this paper points to the need for the entire overhaul of the Kenyan security system to effectively address the terror problem in Kenya. Kenya can borrow from Uganda and Ethiopia in an effort to reduce the threat of terrorism.
Abandoned KDF war boys return to unleash terror
The problem in Africa is that there are two many "second order effects". It is impossible to know "in what direction the wind will blow". A combination of tribalism, corruption, poor governance & unemployment makes for a potent brew.
Quote:
The Sunday Nation can now reveal that the youth, numbering about 3,000, trained at Manyani Kenya Wildlife Society (KWS) Training School before being moved to Archer’s Post in Samburu three years ago, have now become a security nightmare for Kenyan authorities. They are the new soldiers of fortune who are spreading terror in Kenya.
A retired KDF major who is now a security expert, Mr Bashir Abdullaiah, said that the plan, though noble, was bound to fail from the start.
“The plan was good. Train Somali youths and not Kenyans to create a buffer zone between Kenya and Somalia. However, it was infiltrated by Kenyans who received this training and later filtered back into the population and back to their families. Kenya should have handled it the way Ethiopia did to the ones they trained; put them under the command of their military so that you can monitor them long after the war. These people are today roaming and killing people in parts of Kenya,” said Major (rtd) Bashir.
According to people, including religious leaders, the Sunday Nation spoke to, the youths have been used by the highest bidders in many conflicts and attacks including the recent intra-clan attacks where 20 people were killed in Wajir on Monday.
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Abandon...z/-/index.html
Kenyans five times more likely to be shot dead by police than by criminals
A report based on a human rights NGO report, which in places take one's breath away, but this is Africa:
Quote:
Of the 1,868 Kenyans who died from gunshot wounds between 2009 and 2013, 1,252 – or 67 per cent – were killed by a police officer. That proportion changed little during the five years the researchers studied.
For 63 per cent of those deaths, police failed to report details of the circumstances of the shooting. No reason was given as to why the officer opened fire in 68 per cent of cases.
The story wonders aloud what impact UK aid has had:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...criminals.html
Unpacking the Anatomy of the Mpeketoni Attacks in Kenya
Unpacking the Anatomy of the Mpeketoni Attacks in Kenya
Entry Excerpt:
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Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
Cattle rustling? Use artillery: the Kenyan way
Africa works in different ways. A detailed report and explanation for the inter-communal, heavily armed cattle rustling in the Northern Frontier District:http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news...m/-/index.html
Kenya: 148 people dead at Garissa University
The BBC today reported that:
Quote:
The attack on Garissa University, about 150km (90 miles) from the Somali border, was the deadliest by al-Shabab in Kenya.
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-32194722
It is noteworthy that the longer attack and siege at Westgate Mall, in Nairobi, September 2013, was far more accessible for the media and so attracted far greater external reporting.
The BCC and local media have been critical of the security forces response, citing the BBC:
Quote:
Kenya's government has denied accusations that its security forces were slow to respond to Thursday's assault on the university.Mr Kenyatta's spokesman Manoah Espisu told the BBC that the military was at the scene within minutes of the attack, and had helped save the lives of many students on campus.
Local media reported that it took special forces several hours to arrive at the university because of delays in their flight from the capital, Nairobi.
This local report explains why the Recce team, the primary urban SWAT, from the GSU (a police paramilitary unit), took so long to arrive, but note shortly after deployment their snipers shot dead four of the five attackers:http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Shame-o...y/-/index.html
The Guardian has a good, lengthy commentary by a Kenyan journalist, entitled 'Are the terrorists of al-Shabaab about to tear Kenya in two?':http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...baab-divisions
He highlights:
Quote:
The biggest danger, though, is that the two sides of Kenya will simply drift apart. The string of attacks by al-Shabaab has triggered the flight of dozens of non-Muslim professionals from the north-east. After a
massacre of bus passengers in November, the teachers’ union ordered members not to report to work after the Christmas holidays.
There is a main Kenya thread (in the Horn of Africa arena), into which this thread is likely to be merged:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...t=14771&page=8
Kenya is the weakest link in the fight against al-Shabaab
Another commentary on events by a Kenyan student living in the USA at the moment; the title suggests a wider viewpoint than Kenya 'Kenya: Five Things About Al-Shabaab and the Somalia Question':http://kenopalo.com/2015/04/03/kenya...alia-question/
Two Muslims, a Hindu, and two Christians. All Kenyans.
An update from FP on the Westgate attack:http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/20/...ck-al-shabab/?
Some new details, mainly on the individual experiences; the lack of an effective Kenyan state response is well known. I had missed this:
Quote:
Westgate is in the heart of a Kenyan-Indian part of the city, and the close-knit community there knew better than to rely on the authorities to send help. Instead, the call went out to the community’s own licensed gun holders, who were organized into self-appointed armed neighborhood watch units.
In the USA the role of 'first responders' is well known, in Kenya it was different:
Quote:
Instead, an ad hoc volunteer rescue mission had begun to take shape, comprising a motley crew of uniformed, plainclothes, and off-duty police and licensed civilian gun holders......two plainclothes armed officers: two Muslims, a Hindu, and two Christians. All Kenyans.