Bloomberg
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Kenya’s government rejected
accusations by Somalia that its forces breached their
peacekeeping mandate and said the troops will remain there until
the Horn of Africa country stabilizes. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud earlier this month
asked a group of Kenyan forces to leave the country’s south,
accusing them of violating their mandate by supporting one of
two factions seeking control of the Jubaland region. Somalia
wants a “neutral force” to replace the Kenyan peacekeepers,
Somali Information Minister Abdishakur Ali Mire said on July 1.
Kenyan troops entered Somalia in October 2011 to fight al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group al-Shabaab after a series of
kidnappings of foreigners and the murder of a British tourist in
Kenya, which the government blamed on the militant group.
Tourism is Kenya’s second-biggest foreign-exchange earner.
“Kenya’s security along the border with Somalia is
intractably linked to peace and stability in that country,”
Zaddock Syong’oh, a policy adviser in Kenya’s Foreign Ministry,
said in an interview on July 12 in the capital, Nairobi.
“Kenya’s military will not therefore leave Somalia until it is
stable and secure.”
Kenya’s focus in Somalia is to secure Jubaland, which is
also used as a base to plan attacks on Kenya, he said. “It
is a matter of Kenya’s national security,” Syong’oh said.
Aid Deterrence
The semi-autonomous region is the main source of the more
than 600,000 Somali refugees currently in Kenya, Antonio Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said on
July 10. The UNHCR and other aid agencies are unable to deliver
assistance in parts of Jubaland and situation there remains
“tense,” Guterres said in an e-mailed statement.
Since they began the incursion, Kenyan forces have helped
African Union peacekeepers liberate parts of southern and
central Somalia previously controlled by al-Shabaab. Operations
to free more territory have been suspended while the government
resolves its dispute with Kenya, Syong’oh said.
Somalia accused Kenya of violating its mandate after
clashes between two factions seeking control of Kismayo, the
capital of Jubaland. Regional leaders in May elected Ahmed
Mohamed Islam, a warlord also known as Madobe, as the region’s
interim president. Barre Adam Shire Hirrale, a former defense
minister, has since declared himself head of the region,
according to the African Union.
“Kenya is not supporting any one,” Syong’oh said.
An e-mail and calls to Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Saaid’s office seeking comment weren’t answered.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said on April 9 his country
has “invested immense diplomatic energy and resources in the
quest for a stable Somalia,” and will support the African Union
peace process in Somalia because “a stable and prosperous
Somalia is in the interest of all nations.”
The UN is creating a tripartite commission with the
governments of Kenya and Somalia to prepare for the voluntary
return home of Somali refugees. The repatriation should be slow
to avoid destabilizing the peace process, Guterres said.