Kenya’s foray against Al Shabaab will not be easy, but it is necessary

In the wake of the Migingo Island dispute with Uganda, repeated forays into Kenya by Ethiopian and Sudanese bandits and cattle-rustlers, and the latest incursions and abductions by the Somali Al Shabaab group, there was plenty of frustration expressed all round about the seeming impotence of our security organs.

Now the authorities have decided enough is enough. Kenya has declared war on Al Shabaab, an extremist groups that controls large swathes of Somalia and boasts links with the face of global terrorism, the Afghan-based al Qaeda movement of the late and dearly unlamented Osama bin Laden.

For Kenyans fed up with being shooting ducks in regional skirmishes, the call to war might resonate pretty strongly.

It is a demonstration that a sleeping lion will only take so much provocation, and no doubt it will be a source of pride that Kenya can hit back at a bunch of extremist crazies who have made out border security something of an embarrassment.

But it is one thing to swell with pride within presumably secure confines and another to be in the thick of the action.

Many of our images of war have been shaped by Rambo and other Hollywood fare that invariably depict some American hero singlehandedly crushing some Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese, Iraqi or Arab armies.

The revisionism in Sylvester Stallone’s John Rambo neglects to bring out the real story of war. One is that the good guys often get killed. Another is that things do not always go according to script.

And of course, another reality is that war is not the sanitised movie version or some computer game, but a dirty, messy, nasty, brutal, bloody business.

It is easy for us out here to talk tough about going out there and kicking some Al Shabaab butt in true Rambo style.

But for the young Kenyan men going out to the Somali battlefield, delusions from Hollywood fantasy shaped for American self-gratification might bring some rude awakenings.

If movies are to be the frame of reference, think not of Rambo, but those that more accurately bring out the true terror and horror of war.

Films like Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now are amongst a vast offering that shatter the Hollywood myth of the all-conquering good guy.

And of course we have a perfect ‘‘local example’’ in Black Hawk Down, a movie that brought home in gritty realism the debacle of the American military misadventure in Somalia, the early 1990s conflict that claimed the lives of our brave war correspondents Hos Maina and Dan Eldon.

The Black Hawk Down environment is the one our soldiers will be getting into.

It will not be a walk in the park, especially as our army will be up against a faceless enemy that melts into the civilian population; and probably also has sizeable support within the population supposedly being liberated.

One thing that is clear in my mind is that this is a justifiable campaign.

As long as Al Shabaab retains the capacity to wage terror campaigns in pursuit of some warped jihadist agenda, sitting back and praying they do not attack us would be criminal dereliction of duty.

They must be countered aggressively and without mercy to the point that their threat is neutralised.

However, these cannot be knee-jerk reactions to a couple of outrages like the Lamu and Dabaab abductions.

I would want to believe that the foray into Somalia was meticulously planned, with clear and unambiguous objectives, targets and an exit strategy.

One thing Kenya does not want to do is to occupy any part of Somalia for too long, for the economic and security costs would not be worth it.

This is probably the biggest test for the Kenyan military since the Shifta war of the early 1960s, and one only hopes that an army that has hardly since then fired a bullet in anger will acquit itself honourably.

The top ranks of the Kenya armed forces have in the past few decades been more busy running private businesses and colluding with their political patrons to skim the military budgets than in defending the country. Now they have to justify their pay.

mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com