Kenya role in Somalia clan politics worries regional allies

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Kenya role in Somalia clan politics worries regional allies

 

By KENFREY KIBERENGE

 

Kenya’s attempts to intervene politically in southern Somalia will complicate the search for stability in the war-torn country.

 

A decision to prop up armed militias from a leading clan in the years before ‘Operation Linda Nchi’ has created competing centres of power opposed by both Al Shabaab and the Transitional Federal Government. Internal rivalry among these allies in southern Somalia is now affecting joint operations against the Al Qaeda linked terror group.

 

Al Shabaab militants in Somalia. Internal rivalry among militia propped up to fight the terror group is affecting Kenya’s attempt to intervene politically in southern Somalia

 

While the re-deployment of Kenyan forces under the African Union Mission in Somalia, Amisom, has ensured Kenya and her neighbours work together to eliminate Al Shabaab, there are concerns that power struggles and differences over political strategy risk undoing progress on the battlefield.

This is the warning from international experts concerned about the rivalry between Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia over how to bring stability to Somalia. The experts point to a rift over the regional strategy, warning that unless the rivalry is tackled and a common approach developed, each may seek to undermine the other’s efforts, compounding Somalia’s political and security crisis.

 

"In the absence of improved co-ordination, Somalia could in effect be carved into spheres of influence," warns the International Crisis Group, a non-profit group committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict.

 

The rivalry has made itself felt most recently in a power struggle over Amisom briefings.

 

The Kenya Defence Forces wants to give public accounts of its operations in Somalia without the approval of the head of Amisom, a Ugandan military officer.

 

However, UPDF bosses upset at how ‘Operation Linda Nchi’ drew international and regional attention away from the work Amisom was doing in Mogadishu insist on clearing all messages with the chain of command.

 

The Kenya Government’s political missteps in Somalia lie in both how it chose its allies in that country and how it dealt with neighbouring countries with a stake in the country’s future.

 

Over two years ago, Kenya hatched a plan to create a local administration in southern Somalia. Known as Jubaland, and later Azania, it was intended as a buffer between Kenya and Al Shabaab-controlled territory.

 

To set it up, Kenya trained some 2,500 militiamen and helped set up an administrative structure headed by Mohamed Abdi Mohamed ‘Gandhi’, then the TFG defence minister and now president of Azania.

 

When Gandhi’s forces did not perform well in 2010, Kenya began to support Ahmed Madobe and his militia, called the Ras Kamboni Brigade. Support for the two men is now said to have divided the government.