http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2015/11/16/War-profiteering-The-U-S-should-pressure-the-Kenyan-military/stories/201511140017
War profiteering: The U.S. should pressure the Kenyan military
November 16, 2015 12:00 AM
By the Editorial Board
The East African state of Kenya has had a long and painful
relationship with the Somali rebel group al-Shabab. A new report says
the Kenyan army is having a profitable commercial relationship with
it.
Kenya has in principle been fighting al-Shabab in Somalia for years,
with some 4,000 troops stationed there now. The rebels have struck
back in Kenya several times, including a 2013 assault on the Westgate
shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, that killed 67 and an
attack this year at Garissa University College that killed 147.
The United States provided Kenya with $141 million in military aid
between 2010 and 2014 for its Somalia effort, including $38 million
last year and a pledge in May to raise it to $100 million this year.
Kenyan troops in Somalia fight alongside forces from Burundi,
Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Uganda in an
African Union group of about 22,000. They also receive U.S. air and
drone support from Djibouti and Ethiopia in their combat with the
Somali organization.
Journalists for Justice, a Nairobi-based watchdog group, reported last
week that the Kenya Defense Forces have had a profitable relationship
with al-Shabab since 2011 that includes trade in sugar and charcoal.
Sugar worth $400 million a year is imported from a Somali port, then
smuggled into Kenya. Charcoal worth $100 million a year is exported
through to Persian Gulf states. Kenyan military leaders and al-Shabab
split the proceeds.
Kenyan officials have denied the report. Yet this is not the first
criticism of their forces profiteering in Somalia. Since 2013, the
U.N. Monitoring Group for Somalia and Eritrea has faulted the military
for breaching a charcoal export ban on Somalia imposed by the United
Nations.
If American officials were aware of this relationship, then U.S. aid
to Kenya’s military has been a waste. The aid should now be cut off,
at least until the cozy dealings are ended. Kenyan government
toleration of trade with the rebel group, in the face of those Kenyans
who have died in al-Shabab attacks, is grossly irresponsible even in
this country’s generally corrupt environment.
Received on Thu Nov 26 2015 - 12:41:54 EST