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Kenya blameless over Somalia civilian deaths

Posted by on October 31, 2011


NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 31 – The Kenyan military has denied involvement in Sunday’s killing of three civilians during an operation in Jilib region of Southern Somalia.

A statement from the Department of Defence in Nairobi said Kenyan troops were only responsible for the killing of 10 Al Shabaab militants in the region during an aerial attack.

“The incident at the IDP camp developed following enemy actions in the area. Upon the aerial attack, an Al Shabaab driver drove off a technical battle wagon mounted with a ZSU 2-3 anti aircraft gun, towards the IDP camp. The wagon was on fire and laden with explosives. It exploded while at the camp causing the reported deaths and injuries,” Military Spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir said.

He was responding to reports by Medicines Sans Frontiers which accused Kenya’s troops of killing innocent people and wounding women and children.

“They reported an aerial bombardment at an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp killing three and injuring 52 women and children,” Chirchir said, adding that they were reaching out to MSF to clarify the matter.

He clarified: “On 30th October 2011, at around 1400hrs a Kenya Air Force jet hit a known Al Shabaab camp at Jilib following a tip off that a top Al Shabaab commander was visiting the camp. Ten Al Shabaab were killed and 47 wounded with no collateral damage.”

Kenya’s troops have pitched camp in Southern Somalia where they are hunting down Al Shabaab militants accused of destabilising the East African nation’s economic stability through insecurity incidents such as recent kidnappings of four European women.

These include the kidnapping of Frenchwoman Marie Dedieu who was seized last month from her beachfront house in Lamu and later died in captivity in Somalia.

Other women still in captivity in the war torn country include a Briton also seized from Lamu last month during an incident where her husband was shot dead.

Two Spaniards working with MSF who were kidnapped from Dadaab refugee camp in Northern Kenya are also in Somalia.

The Kenyan troops crossed the border into the lawless country two weeks ago and have been advancing deeper, vowing to free more regions of Al Shabaab militants.

Military chief Gen Julius Karangi has vowed his troops will only leave Somalia “when we are satisfied that our country is safe.”

On Monday, Somalia’s fragile Transitional Federal Government sent its Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali to hold talks with his Kenyan counterpart Raila Odinga to reiterate their support to the military incursion.

“Al Shabaab is not a Somali phenomenon; it is not a regional problem… it is a global problem so it is incumbent upon us the international community to face this threat and to make sure that it should be eliminated from the face of the earth,” Ali told journalists after the meeting.

“We had a good discussion with the Prime Minister and other members of the Kenyan government to work together and as he said we shall share intelligence and to make sure that we are walking together,” he added and declared Al Shabaab a common enemy. “They are a threat to the safety and security of both countries therefore it is necessary for us to have a common strategy against a common enemy.”

Odinga on his part said: “We will make sure that peace and normalcy is back in Somalia. We will like to have Somalia in future join the East African Community.”

The two Prime Ministers later issued a joint communiqué calling for the intervention of The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) in taming the Al Shabaab menace.

“TFG will seek ICC assistance in beginning immediate probe into crimes against humanity committed by members of AL Shabaab movement with the aim of seeking indictment as soon as possible,” the joint communiqué read out by Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Richard Onyonka said.






BERNARD MOMANYI Author: BERNARD MOMANYI
BERNARD MOMANYI has written 1081 posts
Bernard is a full time journalist and mainly writes crime-related stories at Capital FM. He has practiced journalism for 10 years both in print and electronic media. He holds a BSc degree in Information Sciences from Moi University where he specialised in Publishing and Media. He also holds a Diploma in Journalism and Public Relations.

  • Anonymous

    I for one I’m not satisfied, there needs to be investigation into what happened. If we made an intelligence blunder we need to admit it, however if the al-shabab are turning to psychological warfare we also need to know.

    For the sake of the Kenyan Defence Force, it sounds unlikely it would target a internationally known famine refugee camp. It just doesn’t make any sense.
    On the other hand the story about the ‘battle waggon’ just sounds odd, I would think any present witnesses would easily distinguish between an exploding battle waggon and an Arial attack.

    we may afford shells and munitions, but one thing is priceless, the support of the somali people…

  • Mandanny

    The beginning of the end for the Kenya Military adventure in Somalia. Now innocent Kenyans in Nairobi should also expect to experience what innocent Somalis are experiencing when misguided Kenyan missiles attack innocent refugees. I have always wondered how the fight against Alshabab could be won with the 1950s Ukrainian military jets and helicopters that Kenya has. Kenya did a very bad mistake going for Alshabab in somali and leaving them right here in Eastleigh. 
    An Al shabab revenge attack in Nairobi and Mombasa will be swift and very painful to Kenyans compared to what the military is doing to innocent somalis refugees.  

  • hellen

    MSF has an issue with the Kenyan operation in Somalia… They opposed it from day one, and wanted to negotiate with the terrorists and pay ransom (their statement said they preferred a peaceful release of their kidnapped staff). Payment of ransom creates a vicious circle where you get more and more kidnaps! I do not think that the Kenyan military would wait until day 15 or so of their war to start targeting civilians – the Kenya Defense Forces should be commended for the restraint they have shown so far in avoiding a pit-bull approach to the whole thing (sort of what has been witnessed in conflicts elsewhere where “collateral damage” victims outnumber militant deaths). Do not hide the truth of what is happening in Somalia, but don’t deliberately create aspersions against the Kenyan forces either!!!!!

  • VigilantKenyan

    The goverment should be looking 4 you right now coz with that talk you are bringing in here, everybody can tell you ar one of those damn Al Shabaab sympathysers.

  • Caveman 2duelcore

    By the way mandazi, the Kenya Armed Forces are one of the most disciplined and professional armies in the world, they are always called upon to help to maintain peace in different parts of the world, we are so proud of them. To answer to your comments, about 1950s jets, we had F-5s way back in the ’70s now the Kenya Air-force has a fleet of more than 100  F-16s and an unspecified number of Super Hornets made in USA dig that? The first day Kenya entered Somalia through the Ras Kamboni area, just one  F-16 blast with pin-point accuracy was enough to make Al-Shabaab surrender.  Your  camels we know existed more than 4000 years ago and that is what you used to raid neighbouring towns whenever you wanted free cows and goods .In the 1970s and 1980s Kenya was perenially faced with  ’shiftas’ (a polite word for bands of  thugs across the Kenya-Somali borders) Is this what you will use inflict fear upon our nation? Whether you blow yourselves up or not in our cities the fact is that Al-shabaab will be sifted like chaff and ground like powder. We will add al-shabaab leaders to osama bin laden and other international criminals. listen up mandazi , you have no place in the 21st century

  • Mochesa

    vigilantkenyan this guy is not a sympathizer, he is al-shabaab himself…people who think they can mess with other people(even kill them) then scream diplomatic solutions!!!!!! we are truly sorry to the innocent kenyan or somali somalis that are harassed over this but you, dear al-shabaab, do not get to dictate how we react!

  • Ngarimuriuki

    i just like the mandazi thing but am not aware when kenya military got hold of  f-16 jets, in fact, kenya only has f-5 tiger jets the other jets like f-16 are vision 2030 for kenya. 

  • Geekomz

    You need to be traced. I think you have more information about al-shabab.

  • mandanny

    Trace me?? You are a fool to think that the government doesn’t know where Al shabab is. Did you hear Hon Onyanka saying that the Government has been negotiating with Al shabab? The goverment clearing knows who Al shabab are and  where they are and what business they operate in Kenya.

  • Justintvb

    lets gets these faceless cockroaches !!!! who use fear tactics to control the poor somali people 
    100000000% with our kenyan troops 

  • Ngugicken

    where is kenya human rights?the body that only shout when a police person get killed and goes quiet when a thug is shot.they need to rise up and negotiate for alshabaabs rights
     




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