We are better off with our KDF soldiers back at home

Quote: True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else? Clarence Darrow

When my friend Lt. Thomas Wamungu Mwangi first told me that he had been picked as a cadet with the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF), I was delighted. He was too. When he told me a few years later that he would be going to Somalia for the mission, my heart sank. My palms dampened.

“If I don’t go there, then who will?” he had said, matter-of-factly, his humor undisputed, and I managed to laugh. This was two weeks before he left. The sound of his orotund voice is still vivid in my ear as I write this.

He reassured me that he would be fine. I gathered everything I’d learned about optimism and tucked in an emotional safe. I trusted, albeit cautiously, that he would be back.

That was the last time I’d ever hear from him.

As we speak, he is now The Late Lt. Mwangi. Gone. Forever.

He was buried two weeks ago in Murang’a. He had been in Somalia for about a year and a half. Had sacrificed his prime years to make sure that we, as a nation, put these al-Shabaab away once and for all. For the record, he never celebrated his thirtieth birthday. He must have been waking up at ungodly hours, exercising rigorously, showering with ice cold water, before going to the cold dry land bushes and villages to prey and raid the al-Shabaab. Eventually, he paid the ultimate price.

He was a brave man. We call him that. But he was many other things to other people too. To these people, brevity and boots and a rifles mattered the least. At the funeral, the black-clad grief-stricken young widow, and her two-year-old son on her hip, spoke of him, the man she loved, still does. You’d have to be truly cruel not to have felt her pain. She said that after years of being in the enemy front, all that Thomas had wanted was to come home and be with his family. A tear quickly build up and fell on the cheek which she wiped with the back of her hand. She paused her speech and blinked repeatedly to stop any more tears from falling before going on with her speech in this brittle voice. She said that Thomas had been thrilled to be finally done with the mission. Moreover, he’d planned not to renew his contract with the KDF. All he wanted now was some peace and quiet.

Effective from the 8th of this month, this year, he is six feet under.

This was a husband, a father, a son a brother. He was a friend. He did not just exist hypothetically. He was a real person, with real feelings, living in a real community that adored him and depended on him in many ways than you and I can imagine. His family and friends have deprived of a loved one way too soon.

The attack on Thomas and his colleagues happened just after he had completed the mission. They were now on their way to the airport to board the plane home when their truck was ambushed and sprayed with bullets by the al-Shabaab. A few survived with injuries, unfortunately Thomas wasn’t as lucky.

Thomas’s story rings true for me.

So why don’t we pause and inspect this whole Al-Shabaab war matter? Like is it really necessary to persist with this war inside the enemy’s stronghold?

When we first went to Somalia under the grand coalition government, we knew it would not be easy. We knew that fighting a conventional war with a convention-less, faceless, relentless enemy would not be an afternoon walk on the beach. But we had to. We had to set the record straight after that French woman was kidnapped, no two ways about that.

No two ways about al-Shabaab being the real enemy here, people.

So, that’s settled.

It was important, at the time to send KDF troops inside Somalia. But a lot has changed since then. Since going to Somalia, we have had myriads of terrorist attacks inside our borders; largely in the capital Nairobi and along the Northern Frontier. The collateral damage has been vast. The pain we’ve faced momentous. We’ve had attacks on malls and universities and buses. A terrorist’s playground, literally! Not a single attack has been easy, why? Because lives were lost. People injured; emotionally and physically. In the blink of an eye, ordinary Kenyans have had their lives rocked out of their foundations.

And that’s what we do know.

I’ll tell you what we don’t know.

What we don’t know is that soldiers like my friend Lt. Thomas are slaughtered daily by terrorists inside Somalia but the powers that be would never want you and me to know that. That the raiding of the KDF camp which killed tens of soldiers was not a one-time thing. It has happened before. Probably fewer people usually die, which in essence doesn’t mean much to the government or anyone else. And while I accept that war is not fought in a vacuum, and that collateral damage is inevitable, we have to get to get to a point where we soberly measure the cost and benefit of war.

What progress have we made so far in Somalia, military-wise; not selling charcoal and sugar?

Is our presence being inside Somalia really that helpful to Kenyans and Somalis?

Right now? 

Where is the real threat? Inside here or in Somalia? Keeping in mind that Mandera-3 happened barely a month ago?

What we don’t know is that we may never have known of these sixty-three soldiers. How long did it take the government to finally admit that, at all? Because it its own twisted, narcissistic and self-preserving way, the powers that be believe that by admitting any deaths or injuries in war, they are somewhat elevating the enemy, which is absolutely crazy, flat-out bananas as far as I’m concerned.

Going to Somalia was a good idea at the time, but getting out of Somalia at this point in time is an even better idea. We can’t lose any more Kenyans in this clearly messed up war. We must craft an exit strategy? if we don’t have one in place? and execute it soon. One Kenyan life lost is one too many. Our soldiers are better off protecting the country from inside. Like all of us, they owe their allegiance to Kenya first. Even as we condole with the families of those soldiers who have been lost or hurt in this mission, let us not forget that history risks repeating itself if we don’t correct our mistakes.