Security Forces Under Fire

Kenya's security forces are in the news again, and again it's bad news. A report by U.S.-based Human Rights Watch accuses them of torture and rape during an operation to disarm feuding clans in North Eastern province -- a volatile region near Kenya's borders with Ethiopia and Somalia -- last October. According to HRW, "scores" of men were tortured, at least a dozen women raped, and over 1,200 people wounded during the three-day operation.
"Some men had their genitals pulled with pliers, tied with wire or beaten senselessly as a method of torture designed to make them confess and turn over guns," the report said.
"This was clearly an operation directed from above. And the torture that we described in this report was systematic and widespread, so much so that we believe there is a good case to be made that crimes against humanity were committed," said Kenneth Roth, HRW executive director. The brutality was not very effective. Some families reportedly bought guns from Somalia to hand over to the security forces and get them off their backs.
As with other allegations of abuse, the authorities have denied the charges in the HRW report."The story of torture and rape by our forces does not exist. Anyone who says so needs psychiatric help," police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told Reuters.
HRW is calling for the removal of the police commissioner and the attorney-general -- the same demand made by UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston in a report earlier this year that found that police in Kenya kill often, and with impunity.
But the two men -- Hussein Ali and Amos Wako -- are still in their jobs. If anything, the Alston report in some ways served to boost defenders of the security forces, some of whom argued that the U.N. rapporteur was meddling in Kenya's sovereign affairs -- always a popular argument on a continent where many view the West and its institutions with suspicion, and not without justification.
Security in Kenya is not a simple subject of course. Some Kenyans will tell you the police and security forces have a difficult, thankless job. Gun crime is on the rise, kidnappings for ransom are becoming more common, carjackings are reportedly in double-figures every night in Nairobi and some say illegal weapons smuggled in from Somalia are fueling a nationwide crime spree. Criminals will shoot with impunity -- three CID officers were shot dead while on patrol in Athi River on Saturday -- and some might argue so should the police, especially given the snail's pace of justice in this country (another failing that has been laid at the Attorney-General's door).
President Mwai Kibaki has announced a national task force to put police reforms on a fast track, but it is hard to see how you can change a deeply entrenched culture of impunity and excess if you do not change the leadership under which this has flourished.
The rot in the security forces does not just manifest itself in excesses against civilians and criminals. There are worrying signs of internal feuding among the police as well.
On Saturday, two senior administration policemen were gunned down by their regular police counterparts in Mombasa. It's not clear why: the regular police said the APs were with a group of gangsters and preparing a robbery. Some witnesses said this was not the case. Some APs said their colleagues were killed because of their investigations into the drugs trade on the coast. Internal Security Minister George Saitoti has ordered an inquiry. But beyond the details, it is clear that with insecurity on the rise, and faith in the security forces at a low, talk of internal feuding only adds to the feeling that serious top-down reform is urgently needed.

Kenya and Somalia

Mogadishu's gutted streets are more than 1,000 kms (and a universe) away from the leafy 'burbs of Nairobi but the shockwaves from Somalia's latest bout of fighting are rippling through to the Kenyan capital. Not to get caught up in paranoia, but warnings of potential attacks by Somali militant Islamists seem to be increasing. Just last week, I was advised by friends to stay away from two public places popular with foreigners because of security warnings. It's frustrating not to know where the information comes from -- is it bonafide intelligence, Kenyan or otherwise; chatter on the Internet; something else? Today's Daily Nation offered one explanation : the suspect visit to Nairobi of two British businessmen -- one of Lebanese origin, the other Egyptian -- in February which led to a raid on their host's home, unearthing pictures of shopping malls on his computer and what police described as terrorist training material.
There can be no doubt that Nairobi offers a smorgasbord of soft targets. Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula may have reassured foreigners that diplomatic police are on high alert, but there is little evidence of heightened security at some of the more obvious places. Then, this weekend, things moved up a level.
Somalia's transitional government appealed to Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen and Djibouti to send troops within 24 hours to fight its Islamist foes. Of course, troops did not materialise -- at least officially --but Wetangula has appeared to suggest that Kenya's door is open to military intervention. "We will not sit by and watch the situation in Somalia deteriorate beyond where it is. We have a duty ... as a government to protect our strategic interests including our security," he said. "Kenya will do exactly that to ensure the unfolding developments in Somalia do not in any way undermine or affect our peace and security as a country."
(Ethiopia, which sent troops in in 2006 to support the then government, denies there are any of its soldiers in Somalia now. Residents in central Somalia say, though, that they have seen them and there are fresh reports of Ethiopians on the ground.)
Then al Shabaab said it would attack Nairobi if Kenya got involved.
"If it tries to, we will attack Kenya and destroy the tall buildings of Nairobi," Sheik Hasan Yacqub, an al Shabaab spokesman, said in Kismayo. Al Shabaab has threatened to seize part of Kenya's northeast in the past, but this latest menace is more emotive and has global resonance.
The possibility of Kenyan intervention -- as part of a wider "coalition of the willing" or on its own, in soldiers or in hardware or logistics -- is intriguing, not just for its effect on Somalia.
Would intervention create the national identity that so many commentators say is missing here -- nothing like a common enemy to bring people together. What would be the effect on the hundreds of thousands of Somalis in Kenya -- not just in squalid refugee camps like Dadaab but also in Eastleigh in Nairobi? Would intervention improve Kenya's somewhat fractious relationship with the Obama administration (the terror alerts put a whole new perspective on Obama's decision to visit Ghana on his African trip)? And how exposed is Nairobi, and wider Kenya, to attacks by al Shabaab or some of the hundreds of hardened foreign fighters who have come to Somalia to wage jihad?
Intervention of any kind is risky, but leaving Somalia to become an entrenched training ground for al Qaeda and its allies in east Africa is a real danger. Maybe we are at a tipping point where the international community has decided that a failed Somalia is no longer just another African "basket case" that draws sympathy but little else, but instead is everybody's problem. A glimmer of hope perhaps for the residents of Mogadishu, where around 300 people have been killed in fighting just since May 7.
For a look at what some people think of foreign intervention, check out the BBC's Have Your Say

This Time I Mean It

Kofi Annan has set another deadline for Kenya's politicians. This time, the former U.N. Secretary-General, who brokered a political deal between President Mwai Kibaki's PNU and Prime Minister Raila Odinga's ODM after the 2007 elections, has said he will hand over a list of those suspected of fomenting post-election violence to the International Criminal Court if Kenya does not set up a local tribunal before the end of August. This is Annan's second deadline. The first was in March. The list of 10 top suspects is believed to include politicians and businessmen, and clearly shining any light on this bloody, murky period will be a risky business.
Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo says Kenya is not ready to set up a local tribunal. He says the country is still too polarized. The funerals last month of those burnt alive in a church during the post-election crisis showed just how fresh the wounds are, and how far we are from real reconciliation. I'm pretty cynical about politicians generally but the fact that Raila's ODM and the Kalenjin community did not attend this most symbolic of funerals shocked me, and made me wonder what is needed to bring the different groups together and rebuild trust. Maybe a local tribunal would help -- like the gacacas in Rwanda -- but a tribunal without trust would only inflame mutual suspicions. There have been few signs from members of the bickering government that they are selfless enough to set up the kind of tribunal that might really investigate who funded the violence, who incited it and who carried it out. Also it is hard to see how a genuine search for justice can take place when most Kenyan politicians are already in campaigning mode for 2012 and, according to their own members, preparing warchests.
It's a strange time in Nairobi. There is heightened security because of threats from radical Islamists in Somalia -- it's hard to judge just how serious the risks are but Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula has assured embassies that the diplomatic police are on high alert. That is not really encouraging. Then, there are rising fears about crime. It's always hard to gauge how much of this is hyperbole, but kidnappings for ransom certainly seem to be on the rise, and some friends say nobody wants to live in stand-alone houses anymore for fears of break-ins. The Mungiki sect and vigilantes are waging a brutal, unforgiving, uncensored war in the Rift Valley, according to today's Daily Nation. And in Nairobi, millions are living lives so devoid of hope that violence, for anybody or any reason, could easily, one imagines, seem less crushing than suffering in silence. For a really damning report on what life is like away from the muzak-filled shopping malls and latte-serving coffee shops that I and many expats frequent, check out this story: "Exploited by landlords, threatened by police, extorted by gangs, the slums in Nairobi are a human rights black hole where residents are deprived of basic services, denied security and excluded from having a say on their future," Amnesty International Secretary-General Irene Khan told reporters.
It all adds up to a very unstable environment. Throw in a row over prosecuting those responsible for the post-election violence and the potential naming of powerful names, and things could get even more volatile.

KENYA DELTA BLOW

The decision by Delta Air Lines to cancel its inaugural flight from Atlanta to Nairobi last week was an intriguing event. I can understand that Delta might be worried about flying into Jomo Kenyatta International Airport -- officials insist they have met all the security requirements to allow direct flights but the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) failed to clear the route at the last moment because of "noted security vulnerabilities in and around Nairobi." (One of the most striking things about living in Nairobi is the softness of potential terrorist targets around the city -- and this at a time when Kenya has been condemned by hardline Islamist militants fighting in Somalia for its role in supporting their enemies there.)
What I did not understand about the Delta affair was the max-impact timing of the announcement -- the day before the inaugural flight was due to land.
It's intriguing because there are so many possible reasons for the headline-grabbing move. Perhaps the truth is stranded somewhere between the press releases, angry comments and off-the-record briefings from all sides.
Some Kenyan officials were furious. Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula summoned outspoken U.S. ambassador Michael Ranneberger to his office to demand an explanation. Wetangula made the not unreasonable point that "great friends like Kenya and America" do not have to communicate through website postings" -- unless, I suppose, one of the great friends is trying to make a very deliberate point about how it views the other. The United States has been pretty outspoken about what it perceives as the failings of the Kenyan government and maybe the timing of the Delta decision was a deliberate or at least serendipitous slap on the wrist.
Ranneberger said the decision to cancel the flight was taken at the last minute and had nothing to do with the situation in neighbouring Somalia where hundreds of foreign fighters have joined Islamist insurgents fighting against President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's Western-backed government. Even if the threat was Somalia-linked -- and insurgents have threatened Kenya before now -- this risk is not new. So one wonders why the Delta decision had to be so last-minute.
Was it a deliberately provocative message to the Kenyan government from the Obama administration that unless you shape up, we are going to play diplomatic hardball? Was there a real, in-the-moment threat to the flight and if so, from whom and how viable was it? And indeed what is being done to track down the people responsible for that threat?
Or perhaps beyond politics, economics played a role. This story points out that Delta plans to cut international capacity beginning in September. So maybe the Nairobi route is no longer a priority? It's a tough time for airlines globally and the decision to halt the Nairobi flight did not pertain to Delta alone, but perhaps economics was at least part of the overall picture.
Some Kenyan officials say they expect the Atlanta-Nairobi flights to begin shortly.

Hard truths

A government delegation travelled to Geneva this week to respond to a U.N. report condemning police impunity, corruption and hundreds of extrajudicial killings in Kenya. U.N. special rapporteur Philip Alston's report was both condemned and cautiously accepted with some caveats by the government when it was released a few months ago -- a typically divided response from a coalition team at war with itself. These divisions were still festering as the team got ready to leave for Geneva to testify before the U.N. Human Rights Council. Prime Minister Raila Odinga's ODM party took umbrage because their people were not included in the delegation. Later, two of their members were added. But a joint position on the report was not hammered out until the team got to Geneva, and only then during late-night negotiations between the ODM members and those from President Mwai Kibaki's PNU.
In the end, the team -- which included Internal Security Minister George Saitoti, Attorney-General Amos Wako and Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo -- agreed to respect human rights and implement some of the recommendations of the Alston report. They did not, however, accept the special rapporteur's call for the Attorney-General and the head of police to be sacked.
So far so predictable.
What really got people talking in Nairobi was the cost of the trip -- helpfully totted up on the Daily Nation's front page. First class air tickets, hotel rooms and generous daily allowances for the 13-member team came to 5 million shillings, the paper said. "It remains to be seen if that is a prudent use of public funds at a time when the economy is on the decline and the Treasury is cutting costs to keep the country afloat," the Daily Nation opined, presumably tongue-in-cheek.
Of course, government officials must travel. It would be naive to think otherwise. But perhaps in a country where 10 million people risk going hungry especially in the dry, far-flung reaches of the north, where children are malnourished in urban slums like Kibera , where Nakumatt supermarkets have a permanent container where shoppers can donate maize, cereals and other necessities for the hungry, a humble gesture from the government -- like flying economy perhaps -- might be appreciated. It would be so easy and would play well in the press. It would also be the right thing to do and if morality is not your thing, one could imagine it might win over the hearts of some frustrated wananchi, the voters of tomorrow. You have to wonder if the failure to make any sort of gesture in these hard times shows arrogance, ignorance or naivety. It certainly makes one question the connection between those in power and the people they represent.
The second interesting thing about the Geneva jaunt was what Kilonzo told the U.N. Human Rights Council about ethnicity and tribalism -- the ghost at the table that influences so much in Kenya but whose name is rarely evoked, at least directly.
Kilonzo blamed Kenya's dire human rights record on unemployment and inequality. He may have been seeking scapegoats for the government's failure to end the culture of impunity that runs from filching company stationery and demanding bribes to shoot-to-kill policies among the police but Kibaki's team might justifiably be asked what they have done to substantively address these twin root causes. This aside, Kilonzo went on to deliver a startlingly frank assessment of Kenya's problems: "Ineffective justice and dispute resolution mechanisms continue to promote impunity which is complicated by low public confidence," he said. "To a large extent, ethnicity poses a significant challenge in Kenya where there is a weak sense of national values, and politics is mainly driven by ethnically-based party vehicles and coalitions."
He also sketched out a solution: "Kenya’s future as a nation depends largely on the resolution of a twin-challenge: the need to recognise and celebrate diversity, and the need to build a strong and cohesive national character."
It would be great if politicians from all parties pinned these words above their desks -- this kind of clear thinking may well be in short supply as the race for 2012 picks up pace.