US intelligence: Kenya unrest could undermine ...[Victory is forthcoming]

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US intelligence: Kenya unrest could undermine anti-terror cooperation

By DESMOND BUTLER

Associated Press Writer

 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. intelligence chief said Kenya's leader is likely to try to cling to power and that recent unrest after a disputed election could undermine the country's cooperation on counterterrorism.

 

Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence, also told U.S. lawmakers that Somalia's transitional government would likely collapse if Ethiopian troops pulled out of the country.

 

McConnell said that ethnic violence in Kenya "has damaged, perhaps for the long-term, public trust in political institutions and the democratization process."

 

He said that President Mwai Kibaki and rival Raila Odinga, both of whom claim to have won the Dec. 27 presidential elections, have show little willingness to compromise.

 

"Kibaki probably will do everything he can to hold on to power," McConnell said in his annual testimony to Congress on global threats to U.S. interests.

 

Violence sparked by a dispute over who won the elections has killed more than 1,000 people and made 300,000 homeless.

 

"Kenya is likely to enter a period of increased social tention and instability, which could affect its willingness and ability to cooperate with the U.S. on regional diplomatic and counterterrorist matters," he said.

 

On Somalia, McConnell told the lawmakers that Ethiopia's Dec. 2006 invervention has provoked insurgency, stoked divisions and made it very difficult for the transitional government to govern.

 

"The Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Governement is incapable of administering Somalia and probably would flee Mogadishu or collapse if the Ethiopians withdrew," he said.

 

Mogadishu has been plagued by fighting since government troops and their Ethiopian allies chased out the Council of Islamic Courts. Remnants of the Islamic group have vowed to fight an Iraq-style insurgency.