Revealed: How traders use private militias to smuggle in contraband goods from Somalia

Policemen patrol the streets of Garissa town where most goods smuggled from Somalia are believed to be repackaged. (Photo:File/Standard)

On the evening of January 12, 2012, armed militants invaded Gerille Administration Police camp on the border between Kenya and Somalia in Wajir.

The jungle-clad militants killed seven people. Al Shabaab militants claimed responsibility for the audacious evening raid in which it abducted two Government officials. It said it had carried out the attack to revenge Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) invasion of southern Somalia on October 16, 2011. The militants wanted KDF soldiers withdrawn.

But now, there is a growing theory that that particular attack and many more others could have been ordered by businessmen who stood to lose the most by KDF’s offensive.

“There is strong evidence to suggest that the businessmen have used private militias under the cover of Al Shabaab to carry out a number of attacks in this country,” said Abdi Noor, a former DC, who is now an independent security analyst.

“These militias could have affiliations with Al Shabaab but they are basically guns for hire. But because the smugglers cannot come out openly and take credit for these attacks they leave it to Al Shabab to claim victory,” he said.

His argument, which is supported by senior security officers in the former North Eastern province, is that KDF’s offensive disrupted illegal but lucrative smuggling activities on the Kenya-Somalia border.

For two decades, warlords and businessmen from both Kenya and Somalia had taken advantage of the Port of Kismayu to make a killing by smuggling contraband goods to East Africa.

In later years, terror groups, such as the Al Shabaab, moved in to take advantage of the free port to to raise revenue for their causes by taxing businessmen and offering protection money.

The smugglers had recruited their own militias to protect their goods and ensure their safe delivery to their intended destination: the shops and supermarkets in Kenya’s interior.

KDF’s stated goal was to create a safe buffer zone inside Somalia and capture the Port of Kismayu from the militants who were increasingly encroaching in to Kenya’s territory.

Informed sources told The Standard on Sunday that the smugglers had divided the 800 kilometre border between Kenya and Somalia in to three sections: Southern Sector, Central Sector and Northern Sector.

The Northern Sector begins from Mandera to Dajibula; the Central Sector begins from Dajibula to Amuma and the Southern Sector from Amuma to the coastal town of Lamu.

“KDF’s invasion rendered key smuggling routes in the Central and Northern sector nearly impassible or very expensive to move goods through,” said Mr Noor.

The smugglers from these two sectors moved in to the Southern sector which had not been badly affected by KDF’s operation, triggering a brief but vicious turf war amongst them.

Joint attacks

Hundreds of people were killed in the battle between the smuggling tycoons from the three regions and several lorries carrying contraband goods were burned. But this war did not last for long.

“They realised that they were all going to suffer if they fought themselves that way. They then convened a meeting in late 2011 and resolved to work out their differences. After all they were businessmen and that one trumped clan interests,” a former aide to one of the smugglers told this reporter in Garissa.

After the rivalries, the smuggling cartels started financing joint attacks on Kenya’s security forces by financing militias whom they have already established in the Kenya-Somalia border. A number of Administration Police (AP) posts were destroyed by these militias with the express aim of paving way for smoother smuggling operations. Gerille AP post became the first casualty of this decision by the smugglers when it was hit on the evening of January, 12, 2012 by armed- jungle-clad militants numbering 200.

Main entry point

During this attack, Burderi District Officer Edward Yesse Mule and immigration official Fredrick Irungu were taken captive for the 544 days. They were released in August last year.

Fafi AP post and neighbouring Yumbis AP post, which is between Hargadera and Garissa, were closed down in 2012 for unknown reasons although they were not hit.

Diiso AP camp in Fafi, which according to security forces is the main entry point for smuggled goods, was closed down by the district security intelligence committee after the locals fought with AP officers.

On May 26, 2013 Damajalla and Abdi Sugow AP camps, both situated about 70km from Dadaab Town were hit, killing six people among them two AP officers, a teacher and a Kenya Red Cross official.

On August 13, 2013 armed militants raided Galmagala AP camp in Fafi District, Garissa County, 50 kilometers from the Kenya-Somalia border, killing four people, among them an AP officer.

Most of these camps were poorly staffed and had few vehicles for transport. The officers also had inferior weapons compared to the ones used by their attackers.

The effect of these attacks is that there is now very limited police presence along the border between Kenya and Somalia, giving room for smugglers to go on with their business unhindered.

 “We need more officers, and even more critically, tools for them to do their jobs well,” said North Eastern Regional Criminal Investigations Department officer, Musa Yego. “We need vehicles, helicopters, better weapons and improved presence of Government services in this region,” he said.

The operational headquarters of the smuggling operations is Garissa town. For long, the security officers here were in the pockets of the smugglers.

On the evening of October 3, 2012 a mysterious fire broke out at the Garissa District Police Station and burned the CID offices to ashes.

A long serving police officer at the station who was present that night said the incident was an inside job.

“Whatever people might say, I was here and I know what was going on. The money from the sugar tycoons was flowing and in turn they wanted the evidence against them destroyed,” he said.

Indeed the policemen at Garissa were too intertwined with the smuggling cartels, forcing the interdiction in April 2013 of more than 10 police officers, chiefs and custom officials.

At the new CID offices, an officer showed us 26 bags of sugar in 90kg bags impounded from one of the sugar smugglers. The label printed on them indicated that they originated from Sudan.

“These are exhibits in the case we have against him. However he had fake documents that indicated that he had legally imported through the port of Kismayu almost 300 more bags,” he said.

The sugar smugglers are rich and influential people and in most cases, they are able to secure their freedom by just making a telephone call to top guys in police, intelligence or in Government.

Police in Garissa are convinced that a brother to a senior Jubilee politician is heavily involved in sugar smuggling, although they have failed to secure hard evidence against him.

They questioned him in 2012 after the attack at Kwa Chege food kiosk which left 10 people dead. The officers also wanted to know what the businessman knew of other terror attacks in Nairobi and Coast.

At a street in Garissa, this reporter witnessed a trailer full of sugar in 25kg bags bearing the name and the logo of Mumias Sugar Company being unloaded and transported to a warehouse. We could not ascertain whether it truly came from Mumias, but a police informer told this reporter that illegal sugar had been impounded from the store before.

A visit to Suq Mugdi (Black Market) in Garissa gives a small but useful insight in to the extent of the lucrative smuggling operations in the town and beyond.

On display are gold jeweleries, mats, utensils, electronics, clothes and brightly coloured milk powder cans that indicate they originated from Saudi Arabia, Yemen or Oman.

Cheap goods

Most of these goods are bought cheaply from the oil-rich Gulf countries where taxes are extremely low and are smuggled by air or sea to Somalia.

They are then loaded in to lorries and transported to the Kenya-Somalia border. At the border, the goods are then loaded to Kenyan registered vehicles which then transport them at night to through well known cut lines with minimal police presence.

They are then stored in safe houses outside Garissa town where, in the case of  sugar, they are re-packaged in to bags bearing sugar companies in Kenya.

Suq Mugdi was razed in November 2012 when KDF soldiers conducted an operation in pursuit of gunmen who shot dead three of their colleagues when they stopped to change a tyre.

At the time of the attack, KDF soldiers had impounded nine trucks of illegal sugar at Dhobley belonging to a prominent businessman known as Warsame.

It was also on the narrow alleys of this famous market where two policemen and two Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) officers were shot dead in broad daylight after visiting a famous store there in April and May 2013, respectively.

They were found with wads of notes in their pockets. “Shooting them in broad daylight was a message to other custom officials and police that they would meet the same fate if they pushed hard,” said the officer.

On May 24, 2013 three officers were injured when their vehicle was hit by a grenade just outside Ifo camp. Following the incident, the police mounted an operation that turned up something unusual.

According to freelance reporter who was at the scene, two of the smugglers told him they had lost a total of Sh80 million when police officers uprooted two high-tech safes that were firmly cemented in their houses.

Soon after this incident Arda Hussein rage alias Quresho, a police informer, was killed by an unknown gunman after she publicly confronted a well-known sugar smuggler.

Before her death, Quresho, a mother of six, had written a note in which she said that five prominent businessmen at Ifo whom she listed by name had threatened to kill her.