KENYAN SECURITY FORCES ACCUSED OF STOKING TENSIONS - ANALYSIS
By George Okore
<
http://www.eurasiareview.com/21052014-kenyan-security-forces-accused-stokin
g-tensions-analysis/> MAY 21, 2014
Analysts warn that the continuing security operation in the Kenyan capital
Nairobi risks widening religious and ethnic divisions, and question the
nature of the terrorism threat that prompted the crackdown.
Operation Usalama Watch got under way in Nairobi's largely Somali suburb of
Eastleigh on April 1. Since it began, security forces have rounded up more
than 4,000 suspected illegal immigrants and refugees, mainly from Somalia,
and held them at the nearby Kasarani stadium in Nairobi for screening by
police, the national registration bureau and the department of refugee
affairs.
At the same time, the government has ordered all refugees to return to camps
in northern Kenya where they are officially registered. (See Nairobi Demands
Refugees Return to Camps.)
The police operation was launched after a spate of attacks in Eastleigh and
the coastal city of Mombasa.
On March 23, gunmen fired on a church in Mombasa, killing six people and
wounding several others. A week later, multiple explosions in Eastleigh
killed a further six. Late last month, four people were killed when a car
exploded as officers were directing the driver to take it to a Nairobi
police station.
On May 4, three people were killed and more than 60 injured when improvised
bombs exploded on two commuter buses in Nairobi.
Those attacks followed the assault and stand-off at a Nairobi shopping
centre in September 2013. Islamic militants from the Somali-based group
al-Shabab stormed the Westgate building on a busy Saturday, killing 67
people and injuring hundreds of others.
DETENTIONS SEEN AS DIVISIVE
The crackdown comes a year after Uhuru Kenyatta became president following a
March 2013 election.
"Last year, I joined fellow Kenyans at this same venue [Kasarani stadium] to
witness the swearing-in of the new president," said one Nairobi resident.
A Muslim, this woman accused the authorities of persecuting members of her
faith.
"It's unfortunate and symbolic that on the first anniversary, my
fellow-Kenyans are being screened here mainly because of their religious
beliefs," she said.
Other Nairobi residents say that the operation and the police's treatment of
Somalis have led to the demonisation of the Muslim community, and that this
has been exacerbated by the local media.
"All one needs to do is listen in to any talk radio programme these days and
you'll hear Muslims being blamed for every security problem," a student in
the capital said.
Islamic leaders and human rights groups have condemned the police's actions,
accusing them of targeting Muslims and stoking tensions between different
ethnic and religious communities.
"When such an important national security operation takes a partisan
religious angle, we are worried Kenyans will splinter along religious
lines," Maurice Odhiambo, president of the National Civil Society Congress,
said at a recent press conference in Nairobi. "The operation should target
all criminals disregarding races, religion [and] status."
MISTREATMENT OF SOMALIS
Human rights groups have documented abuses against the Somali community in
Kenya over a number of year, as the authorities try to respond to attacks by
militants linked to al-Shabab.
According to the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), security services
beat and tortured hundreds of people and raped more than a dozen women in a
security operation in northeastern Kenya five years ago. The group reports
similar operations across the north over recent years which have involved
widespread mistreatment of Somalis, both refugees and Kenyan nationals, by
the security services.
In the latest crackdown in Eastleigh, rights groups have recorded accounts
of detainees being held in deplorable conditions. Many have been held
without charge far longer than the legal 24-hour period. HRW said it had
witnessed detainees at the Pangani police station near Eastleigh being
whipped and beaten.
Cedric Barnes, a Horn of Africa expert at the International Crisis Group
think tank, argued in a blog post that rather than combating terrorism, the
police risked further radicalising parts of the Muslim community.
"The recent attacks were targeted and the government's security operations
in response quickly exposed divides between majority and minority
communities, even between [lawmakers] within the ruling Jubilee coalition,"
Barnes wrote. "The government's recent action threatens to create a greater
constituency for al-Shabab. Blanket actions that look like collective
punishment of a particular minority and faith group can only marginalise -
and radicalise - further."
CRACKDOWN DEFENDED BY SECURITY FORCES
The Kenyan authorities have insisted their actions are legitimate.
In an article on Nairobi's Capital FM website, the inspector general of
police, David Kimaiyo, said the operation was justified and was not aimed at
any specific ethnic or religious group.
"The ongoing crackdown against criminals across the county is not targeting
any particular community or religious group, but individuals who have been
causing mayhem and terrorising Kenyans," he wrote. "Those who have been
arrested in the past few weeks are from different communities in Kenya and
foreigners who do not possess legal documents to be in the country."
He dismissed as "preposterous" claims in local media that human rights
violations had taken place.
As analysts criticise the heavy-handed methods employed by the security
services, some ask whether there is a legitimate basis for these sweeping
moves all.
The recent attacks in Kenya have been blamed on al-Shabab and are generally
assumed to be retaliation for operations the Kenyan military has been
pursuing against the militant group inside Somalia since October 2011.
However, unlike in the attack on the shopping mall last September, al-Shabab
has not claimed responsibility for any of the recent attacks.
Ben Rawlence, a researcher for the Open Society Institute who is based in
Kenya, questions the conclusion that the attacks are linked to organised
terrorism, and in particular to al-Shabab.
"The Kenyan police have been very cagey about all of those terror attacks,"
he told a meeting at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London
on May 8. "The Kenyan police have provided no evidence to back up that
assumption."
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS REMAIN
There are other questions about the conduct of the security operation.
Although large numbers of refugees - legal and illegal - have been detained,
media reports in Kenya suggest that hundreds of them have been able to buy
their freedom by paying security officers bribes of a few thousand Kenyan
shillings (around 100 US dollars).
The government's order for refugees to return to refugee camps like the
Dadaab settlement near the Somali border seems inconsistent with the
allegation by the Kenyan parliamentary committee on national security last
October that the camp had become a training ground for Islamic extremists.
The committee ordered the camp to be closed, although the United Nations
refused to do this. (See Proposed Closure of Kenya Refugee Camp Condemned.)
Over the last few weeks, the government has said it is pursuing only those
who are in Kenya illegally, but it has not explained why illegal immigrants
are more likely to be involved in terrorism than legal ones.
Rawlence argued that if police were willing to take a bribe in return for
releasing individuals suspected of acting illegally or posing a serious
terrorism risk, that raised serious questions about the validity of the
threat.
"You'd be forgiven for being quite sceptical about the way in which the
Kenyan government has undertaken this operation," Rawlence said. "It doesn't
seem to add up in terms of cause and effect, unless the Kenyan state really
is stunningly blinkered and stunningly incompetent, with the police letting
everybody go."
George Okore is a freelance reporter in Nairobi. Simon Jennings, IWPR's
Africa Editor, also contributed to this report.
Received on Wed May 21 2014 - 11:12:58 EDT