SOMALI lawmakers backed a motion demanding that Kenyan forces withdraw from the Horn of Africa country, after a report accused the soldiers of being involved in illegal sugar and charcoal smuggling and of committing human-rights abuses, the private Star daily reported.
About 160 of 163 members of parliament voted November 14 to have the Kenya Defense Forces pull out, the Nairobi-based newspaper reported, citing Mohamed Omar Dalha, head of the parliamentary commission on external affairs.
Lawmakers also cited Kenya’s plans to build a 440-mile wall along their border as a reason for backing the call, it said (See article).
Journalists for Justice, a Nairobi-based organization, published a report last week accusing the Kenya Defence Forces of being involved in illegal sugar trading that’s worth as much as $400 million a year.
Senior military officials are also connected to charcoal smuggling, it said. Both activities help fund Al Shabaab, the Somalia-based Islamist insurgency, according to the report.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on November 14 denied the allegations, saying they were “most ridiculous and misplaced.”
Kenyan forces moved into Somalia in October 2011 to help that country’s government regain control of parts of southern and central Somalia that had been captured by Al Shabaab.