Kenya (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

A short ICSR article 'Al-Shabaab: Recruitment and Radicalisation in Kenya':http://icsr.info/2012/11/icsr-insigh...tion-in-kenya/

Based on our fieldwork with former al-Shabaab members in Kenya, about half of the people we interviewed were motivated by financial rewards. The other half were taken in by the teachings of Ali and other jihadist preachers.

[davidbfpo]

From a "lurker" the ambush targeted a mix of ordinary police, the para-military General Service Unit and para-military anti-poaching officers.

A BBC follow-on report, a mix of local detail and the wider context:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20392510

This explains a lot:

Traditionally the pastoralist communities in northern Kenya have been armed by the state and left to provide their own security under a "home guard" system.

Elsewhere in Kenya there is violence involving ethnic Somalis:http://news.yahoo.com/more-violence-...jQwZTFk;_ylv=3

Hard to be optimistic about Kenya, particularly with an election looming and the ease in which violence overtakes the ballot box.

This short comment is enough:

The Somali militant group al-Shabaab is currently losing ferocious battles against Kenyan troops in Southern Somalia - part of an African Union peacekeeping mission. However, they are winning a strategic war back in Kenya; this is the battle for hearts and minds.

This HRW report is not encouraging, certainly no "hearts & minds" approach here:http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/fil...2webwcover.pdf

[davidbfpo]

Clearly much has happened in Kenya since the last post in 2012. There is a seperate post on the September 2013 Westgate Mall attack (also a SWJ article):http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=19047

An older one on a previous attack in 2002 has been merged in.

[davidbfpo]

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/

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.

[davidbfpo]

A report based on a human rights NGO report, which in places take one's breath away, but this is Africa:

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