Kenya: When former US Ambassador to Kenya ,Michael Ranneberger warned our government against sending youth of ethnic Somali from Kenya to join the fight against Al shabaab,many Kenyan politicians bashed him.
Ignoring the advice given by allies such as the US ,our government went on and trained a number of young Kenyan Somalis then sent them to Somalia. Mr.Ranneberger expressed concerns that the move by the then government led by President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga was ill fated citing that the same recruits would return as terrorists.
Each time Kenya is attacked by Alshabaab, survivors and witnesses have always said that the militants communicate in fluent Swahili. In as much as we know the terror group has been recruiting young Kenyans directly within our country the idea that some of the trained youth who left for Somalia are back as terrorists is not far fetched.
Soon after Garrisa University attack, reports that Kenya had been warned prior to the massacre by Australia, Britain and even Iran among others made headlines. Nothing significant was done in line with this actionable intelligence. Again there is a strong feeling Kenya chose to ignore with President Uhuru Kenyatta rubishing travel advisories by Britain a few hours before innocent students were brutally killed.
Therefore one wonders ,why do we think we are good enough by ourselves and not heed to advice from more developed intelligence and powers of the world when they extend their olive branches?
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The government should accept that we are not yet there, and we need help from willing allies to combat terrorism.
We can benchmark from Ethiopia and Israel. The two have successsfully warded off enemies and are seldom visited by terror. The attitude that Israelis have embrassed is that they treat everyone as a suspect until they are cleared of any suspicions. Here we ignore.
For every Israeli life lost, they retaliate by killing 30 or even more enemies.Which is why they survive in the midst of dangerous foes.
What was foreseen by the US has come to pass. Our very own and those we used our resources to train are fighting us. They are equipping Al shabaab with intelligence from our country and we remain overly susceptible to recurring attacks.
Wherever Ranneberger is,he must be saying, “ I told them but they would not listen.”
