Kenya a Victim of Terrorism

Prof Dr Colonel (Retired) K Prabhakar Rao

The Republic of Kenya is a country in Eastern Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the northeast, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest, with the Indian Ocean running along the southeast border.(1) It has religious compositions such as Various Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 33%, Muslim 10%, Traditional Religions 10%. Others include Hinduism, Jainism & the Bahá'í Faith. With Al Qaeda spreading terror net work in the world wherever Muslims live, Kenya too has become the target of militant activities. Entire Africa is divided into small countries that are poor, underdeveloped and most of them were colonies of European powers. The continent was known as black continent for many years and remained un explored. The countries suffer from malnutrition, disease and illness, lack of education and rise of fundamentalism in Muslim societies. The backward nations are breeding grounds for Islamic fundamentalism today and Kenya is no exception like its neighbors such as Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia and Tanzania and many other African countries with presence of sizeable Islamic communities who easily fall a prey to the inspirations in the name of religion by fundamentalist Mullahs. Kenya became a victim for such events by virtue of its cordial relations with Western nations and other forward looking countries. Islamic fundamentalism derives its strength from hatred towards West. West and its influence is considered by them as evil and the root cause for all the ills that plague the Islamic societies today.

Kenya is susceptible to terrorism, especially due to the government's close relationship with the United States and other Western democracies. In 1998, Al-Qaeda terrorists blew up the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. More than two-hundred people were killed and approximately five-thousand others were wounded in the Nairobi attack. Most of the casualties were Kenyans. Kenya was attacked by Al-Qaeda again in November 2002, when three suicide terrorists detonated bombs at the Israeli owned Paradise resort hotel near Mombassa. More than a dozen people were killed. In another attack, Al-Qaeda terrorists fired a missile at an Israeli passenger plane as it was taking off from the Mombassa airport. Fortunately, the missile missed it’s target (2). The influx of Somali refugees crossing into the country from war-torn Somalia is another reason why the international community should worry about the country's internal problems. It is reported that over 25,000 new refugees from Somalia have entered Kenya as a result of the Islamic courts taking power. There are genuine concerns that Islamic radicals may be using this refugee flow to smuggle weapons and people into Kenya to engage in terrorist attacks against Western interests (3). The fear of growth of terrorism against western people and interests and establishments in Kenya is well found and genuine and is fully supported by past incidents. The United States is committed to fighting terrorism in East Africa by providing training, equipment, and other assistance. “Kenya,” said President Bush in 2003, “is our key partner in this initiative, and its government clearly has the will to fight terror.”

Tensions have also been high between the Muslim community and the Kenyan government. Muslims on the coast, the northeast and in Nairobi complain that they have been persecuted on the flimsy excuse of being terrorist suspects. The government-funded Anti-Terror Police Unit has been allegedly fleecing businesses belonging to ethnic Somalis and Arabs on the claim that they finance terrorists (Reuters, May 24). The unit was set up in 2003 to probe Kenya's Islamic militants, including the recovery of missiles and the forging of links to friendly foreign security services. Its operations, however, have been adversely hampered by the lack of a central government in chaotic Somalia, since security officials fear that extremist groups still take refuge in the volatile horn of the African country.

Islamic groups have held demonstrations in the country's two biggest cities, Nairobi and Mombasa, denouncing the U.S., British and Israeli governments for their actions toward Islam. Most recently, demonstrators in the coastal city of Mombasa burned the flags of the United States and Israel amid chants of jihad in protest of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. In Mombassa, roughly 60 percent of the population is Muslim.

Terrorism within the country adversely affected Tourism which is the main revenue source for the country. As stated earlier, Kenya is one of the poorest countries in the world. Kenya's tourism business has fallen on hard times after several Western countries urged their citizens not to travel here because of the risk of terrorist attacks during 2003 when the attacks took place. British Airways at that time has suspended flights to Kenya. Tourism is crucial to Kenya's economy, bringing in U.S. $500 million in annual revenue, according to the Kenya Tourism Federation. Kenyan tourism officials have estimated that Kenya was now losing at least $1 million every day because of the decline in tourism (4). Who is to be blamed for this?

The American government seems willing to help Kenya, offering to train a special anti-terrorist police unit of 500 officers and providing surveillance equipment at major airports. But Kenyans feel solving the current predicament will require changing policies in the Middle East. Until then, many innocent people may lose their lives for a cause that is not theirs. The government policy in Kenya is purely anti terrorist in nature and is taking all the measure to curb this menace. But the Muslim population like in any other African country is being influenced by the fundamentalist ideology and the AlQaeda cadres have infiltrated Kenyan Islamic society. It is very easy to spread hatred in Islamic society as religious bondage is very strong in all Islamic societies; they get very easily swayed by the ideology. In Kenya, rise of fundamentalism in Muslim community has been rapid and is entrenched. Poverty, lack of education and unemployment that plague these countries add fuel to the fire and youth get inspired towards extremism seeing glory in it. This has to be arrested at all costs by the Government.

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia, Free encyclopedia, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:U34QXXY8SegJ:en.wikipedia.org/

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2. Examine terrorism in Kenya, CNN studentnews.com, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:Q4FAwhX7zgcJ:fyi.cnn.com/2002/fyi/lesson.plans

/12/01/kenya/+Kenya+and+terrorism&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9

3. Kenya fights terrorism, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:fZuez_1ut7UJ:www.voanews.com/uspolicy/archive

/2003-10/a-2003-10-14-1-1.cfm+Kenya+and+terrorism&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

4. Terrorism taking toll on Kenya’s Tourist industry, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:WdDYbTc4meIJ:news.nationalgeographic.com/news

/2003/06/0617_030617_kenyatourism.html+Kenya+and+terrorism&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5

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