Poll: 82pc of Kenyans back Shabaab fight

Kenya’s war against the Al-Shabaab has received a major boost after an overwhelming majority of Kenyans supported the ongoing military operation in Somalia.

A recent survey conducted by the University of Nairobi’s Institute of Development Studies established that 82 per cent of Kenyans approve of the Operation Linda Nchi to defeat the militants.

The survey was conducted between November 4 and December 5 last year, six weeks after the military crossed the border to Somalia to wipe out the Al-Shabaab.

According to the lead researcher Prof Winnie Mitula, the survey covered 2,400 respondents of voting age drawn from 44 of the country’s 47 counties.

Three counties, Lamu, Isiolo and Mandera were not covered because they were inaccessible to enumerators due to insecurity.

According to findings, only 11 per cent of Kenyans feel that the government has handled the war against the militants badly. The remaining seven per cent are not aware that the country has gone to war.

One of the researchers, Joshua Kivuva, explained that the high approval rate was due to the fact that there have been no incidences of grenade attacks in Nairobi since November.

“Other than the first two attacks in Nairobi soon after the war started, we have not heard any attacks in Nairobi and we think this was responsible for the overwhelming support,” said Dr Kivuva.

There have, however, been a series of attacks in Northern Kenya blamed on the militants since the operation started.

Dr Kivuva also attributed the positive responses from Kenyans to the good public relations exercise put up by the Kenya Defence Forces spokesmen, Colonel Cyrus Oguna and Major Emmanuel Chirchir since the war started.

“The two spokesmen have done a very good public relations job helping Kenyans gain confidence in the operation,” Dr Kivuva stated.  

Kenyan troops crossed into Somalia on October 16 accusing the militants of being responsible for a series of attacks on tourists on the Kenyan coast and the general insecurity in the region. (READ: Kenyan troops off to war).

The troops have since “liberated” several towns in Southern Somalia but the ultimate aim is to capture Kismayu, regarded as the nerve centre of Al Shabaab’s operations in the region.

According to a United Nations report on Somalia and Eritrea released last July, the militants collect millions of shillings through extortion from cargo ships docking at the port to fund their bloody insurgency. The capture of the town will therefore starve them of the much needed finances to fund their operations.

Fighting alongside the Kenyan troops are fighters from the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and lately Ethiopian troops.