Kenya (catch all)

[SWJ Blog]

Images From A Terrorist Attack At A Mall In Kenya

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[SWJ Blog]

###-For-Tat: Kenya, Somalia, and the Resurgence of al-Shabaab

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[SWJ Blog]

The Lay-Out of Westgate Mall and its Significance in the Westgate Mall Attack in Kenya

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[AdamG]

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Dozens of extremists wielding automatic weapons attacked a small Kenyan coastal town for hours, assaulting the police station, setting two hotels on fire, and spraying bullets into the street. At least 48 people were killed, officials said Monday.

The assault in Mpeketoni began around 8 p.m. local time on Sunday night as residents were watching World Cup matches on TV and lasted until early Monday, meeting little resistance from Kenya's security forces.

At the Breeze View Hotel, the gunmen pulled the men aside and ordered the women to watch as they killed them, saying it was what Kenyan troops are doing to Somali men inside Somalia, a police commander said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to share that detail of the attack.

Authorities blamed al-Shabab, Somalia's al-Qaida-linked terror group, who have vowed to carry out terror attacks to avenge the Kenyan military presence in Somali. Along with its Somali fighters, the group also has many Kenyan adherents.

http://news.yahoo.com/police-48-kill...063232220.html

A mob of armed gunmen linked to the Somalia's Al shabaab militia have shot dead more than 26 people in a night of terror in Mpeketoni town 300kms from Mombasa.

Our Malindi Reporter who was caught in the shooting say a group of gunmen of Somali origin started spraying the car their were traveling in with bullets.

"They were so many and they were shooting all over and throwing grenades on everything they saw in their wake. I have never seen anything like it," said our reporter Alphonce Gari.

He could not establish immediately the number of those killed in the attack because he had not yet reached the epicenter of the shooting in Mpeketoni town.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201406160273.html

[KingJaja]

Just wondering how this will all end. Kenya was once known for the Mau Mau - & if the non-Muslim community is further provoked, terrible things could happen.

[carl]

Do you guys think Al Shabab is deliberately trying to provoke a religious war in Easr Africa? It seems that is what the ISIS is trying to do in Iraq. Perhaps all these groups are set on pushing until hell breaks loose.

[davidbfpo]

Do you guys think Al Shabab is deliberately trying to provoke a religious war in Easr Africa? It seems that is what the ISIS is trying to do in Iraq. Perhaps all these groups are set on pushing until hell breaks loose.

No, not a religious war, although that is topical and maybe a thought. Far more valuable is to ensure the large Somali diaspora, including refugees, many living in the Nairobi suburb of Eastleigh, shift allegiance towards them or are neutral.

Wiki shows Kenyan relious affiliation as:

Christianity 82.5% and Islam 11.1%....Some sources suggest the number of Muslims in Kenya between 35% and 45%.

According to the 1989 Kenyan census approximately 900,000 ethnic Somalis live in Kenya..from atotal polpulation of 38.6 m. Although provisional results from the 2009 census reported a much larger number of over 2.3 million Somali residents, they are believed to be inaccurate due to inconsistencies in the gathered data.The figure has consequently been nullified for an official recount.

[JMA]

This FP article is germaine to this discussion:

VOICE : Why Are Africa's Militaries So Disappointingly Bad?

... both armies have botched key domestic interventions when crises hit, exposing weaknesses that raise fundamental question marks about operational reliability.

and this:

"The West has this model of a disciplined, neutral army that stands on the sidelines, independent of domestic politics," explains Jakkie Cilliers of the Pretoria-based Institute for Strategic Studies (ISS). "But the African model is of a military that is used internally and is part and parcel of domestic politics and resource allocation."

The question really revolves arround what military operations are possible within the capabilities of the respective armies.

(This post has also been made in the Nigerian thread)

[AdamG]

Lamu, Kenya: A driver who claims he was hijacked by the gunmen behind last month's killings in Mpeketoni has been charged with killing 12 of the victims. It was a dramatic reversal of fortunes for Diana Salim Suleiman when he was hauled before a judge in a Mombasa Court yesterday to plead to 12 murder charges as his lawyers protested that the prosecution was trying an innocent man. Following his arrest, Diana has maintained that he was hijacked on June 15 by gunmen posing as passengers on the Malindi-Lamu Road, who forced him to drive to Kipini, Lamu County. He claims he was beaten by his captors who robbed him of his matatu and abandoned him in the bush.

Read more at: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/theco...2-in-mpeketoni

[Red Rat]

Do you guys think Al Shabab is deliberately trying to provoke a religious war in Easr Africa? It seems that is what the ISIS is trying to do in Iraq. Perhaps all these groups are set on pushing until hell breaks loose.

There are definitely ethnic tensions on the ground. Predominantly caused by the growth and expansion of the Kikuyu away from their traditional tribal areas, including their move to areas of East Kenya. This move is perceived within Kenya as partly driven by a desire to load constituencies in favour of Kenyatta for the next election.

Governor Timamy of Lamu County who was arrested in relation to the attacks is an ethnic Bajuni and the BBC report (below) gives some good background. My sources concur with:

"Most of the people killed in the attacks were ethnic Kikuyus. Mr Timamy is an ethnic Bajuni, an indigenous group from Lamu County. Many of the native communities have had long-standing differences with members of the Kikuyu community, who they say came to the area and "took over their land"."

BBC World Kenya Attacks Report

The current spat with the UK over military training in Kenya is also seen as being closely linked to Kenyatta protecting his Kikuyu constituency and their links with the Khat trade.

[SWJ Blog]

Unpacking the Anatomy of the Mpeketoni Attacks in Kenya

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[davidbfpo]

The BBC today reported that:

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:

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:

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

[davidbfpo]

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/

[davidbfpo]

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:

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:

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.

[davidbfpo]

A "broad brush" article on the COIN / CT campaign underway in part of rural north-east Kenya, on the border with Somalia:

Tucked into the northeast end of the country’s coast, the Boni National Reserve is a fairy-tale paradise, a resplendent ecosystem packed with elephantine baobab trees and hydra-headed doum palms. This mix of riverine forest and swampy grassland is home to some of the country’s largest herds of game...

Link:http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...an-forest.html

Surprised to read this, yet another 'wall':

Kenya is building a 435-mile Western-funded security wall at the nation’s eastern border. On a visit to Kenya last year, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.....committed funds to the project.

[AdamG]

August 18th 2017

Suspected Al-Shabaab fighters have beheaded there people and torched houses in dawn attack on Maleli Village of Witu in Lamu.
Villagers and sources on the ground put the figure at four but County Commissioner Gilbert Kitiyo told the Nation that the report he had received indicated three.
12.30AM
Mr Kitiyo said he had dispatched a contingent of police officers to pursue the attackers.
The gunmen struck at around 12.30am Friday as the villagers slept, according to witnesses.
Armed to the teeth, they targeted men as they spared women and children, villagers told the Nation.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201708180732.html

[AdamG]

This was a temporary separate thread until merged on 29/1/2019 into the main thread (it had eights posts with 300 views). Might it turn into another Westgate Mall Charlie Foxtrot.

Suspected militants have attacked a luxury hotel complex in Nairobi, killing a number of people.

Gunfire and blasts were heard at the compound in the Westlands district of the Kenyan capital, which houses the DusitD2 hotel as well as offices.

The Somalia-based militant group al-Shabab said it was behind the attack.

People, some covered in blood, were led out of the complex by police. Late on Tuesday the government said all buildings had been secured.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46880375

[AdamG]

(CNN)CNN journalists near the hotel complex in Nairobi that was attacked Tuesday are still hearing intermittent gunfire from the location, hours after the government gave the all-clear.

At least 11 people have been killed during what police described as a "suspected terror attack" at the complex in the Kenyan capital, said a source at the hotel assisting with security.
The source called the death toll "conservative" and expected it to rise: "I saw six dead on the footpath exit over the river and five more at the secret garden cafe."
A US State Department official said an American was killed in the attack, and provided no other details. CNN is reaching out to officials from other nations to see whether any of their citizens are among the victims.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/15/afric...ntl/index.html

[AdamG]

The AK-47 appears to be brand new.

A CCTV footage has now emerged showing how four heavily armed attackers stormed the 14 Riverside Drive Dusit2 hotel. The footage shows three of the gunmen dressed in black tops with green vests and Ak47 rifles. In the footage, the suspected terrorists are seen signalling one another to take different positions as they fired indiscriminately to anyone on sight.

https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2019...hotel_c1878512

[AdamG]

DAMN SKIPPY!

Mystery Pirate Patch-Wearing Special Operator Jumped In To Help Kenyans During Hotel Attack
Images of the individual show them with weapons, gear, and other items associated with American or British special operations forces.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone...WVRa77NNUBV9tc