Military action in Somalia was planned for years, say US cables

In January last year, a team of senior Kenya government officials met their US counterparts in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to lobby for international support for their solution to the Somalia problem.

The “Jubaland Initiative” as the secret plan it was dubbed, proposed the creation of a separate state in southern Somalia called Jubaland to cut off the Al-Shabaab from Kenya.

Citing increased threats to national security posed by Al-Shabaab, the Kenyan delegation led by Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula said the initiative was necessary to secure Kenya’s borders. (READ: Kenya's security forces on the spot after attacks)

They made a passionate appeal for US “understanding and support.”

Occurring on the margins of an African Union summit, the meeting also featured the then Chief of General Staff Gen Jeremiah Kianga, Defence minister Yusuf Haji and the director of National Security Intelligence Service Maj-Gen Michael Gichang’i.

The Addis forum was just one in a number of meetings held between high-ranking Kenyan and US officials in the campaign to enlist US support for the initiative.

Faced with US scepticism, the Kenyan delegation said the Jubaland Initiative was in fact the idea of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia.

A lot of lobbying went on and, nearly two years later Kenyan Defence Forces rolled into southern Somalia for their first ever foreign military operation much to the enthusiasm of the local population and utter dismay of the international community.

Details about the lobbying are contained in diplomatic cables released by the anti-secrecy website Wikileaks early this year.

The cables reveal how Kenya engaged the US in a tussle of wills for more than two years in its determination to militarily neutralise Al-Shabaab’s threat, resulting in the launch of Operation Linda Nchi on October 6 this year.

The cables also say the military action took years of planning and was not a spontaneous reaction to abductions conducted by the Islamist group on Kenyan soil as repeatedly stated by government officials.

The abductions seemed to provide Kenya with a convenient excuse to launch the plan which, officials argued, was necessary to ensure protection against threats posed by an unstable neighbour.

The cables indicate that the operation enjoyed unqualified support from both sides of the grand coalition government. President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga were firmly behind it.

Planning committee

One of the cables indicates that Mr Wetang’ula informed US Ambassador for African Affairs Johnnie Carson that the planning committee was working from Mr Odinga’s office.

“The Kenyan effort was being coordinated by a team based in Prime Minister Odinga’s office, Wetang’ula said, but the Prime Minister and President Kibaki co-chair the effort in order to make it truly bipartisan,” reads part of the cable.

Kenyan officials enumerated the problems caused by Al-Shabaab insurgency: refugee influx into Kenya, radicalisation of the Kenyan youth, proliferation of small arms, and distortion of market prices as result of piracy money flowing into the Kenyan economy. (READ: Risks and opportunties in Kenya’s intervention in Somalia)

“Saitoti also noted that Somali piracy has hurt Kenya. He claimed proceeds from ransoms paid to Somali pirate syndicates are being used to purchase expensive commercial and residential properties in Kenya at inflated prices, thus affecting the Kenyan economy by distorting the real estate market.