Al-Shabaab: the spectre of terror at our doorstep

Since the bombs that destroyed the lives of hundreds of Kenyans in the attack on the US Embassy in Nairobi in 1998, one name that has become synonymous with terror in the minds of Kenyans is that of Al-Shabaab.

Branded a terrorist organisation by several United Nations members, and known to be the Somalia affiliate of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden’s global terrorist network, Al-Shabaab has gained sufficient notoriety to merit the deployment of an African Union military force, one of whose briefs is to stop it in its tracks.

Still, many Kenyans have kept on asking whether it poses a credible threat to Kenya. The answer is most emphatically yes!

Al-Shabaab’s activities must be appraised critically and be seen for what they really are — a real and present threat to the security and stability not only of Kenya but also the entire region and even beyond.

Al-Shabaab is an amorphous militia. This is a group that commits atrocities in their own country and then blames Kenya for it. It unleashes terror on its own people and seeks to export the same to neighbouring countries.

Unable to subdue the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces, the militia now behaves like enraged beasts charging senselessly at invisible and imaginary enemies in and out of Somalia.

A time comes in the life of any nation to choose between submission and aggression. The TFG forces in Somalia have chosen to fight. They have found that Somalia is not big enough to hold both of them (TFG Forces and Al-Shabaab).

One has to go or surrender if peace and tranquillity is to prevail. This is why the TFG Forces have put up a very strong, well-oiled and high profile operation in their country for the common good of the Somali people.

The world knows Al-Shabaab as masters of propaganda, manipulation and extortion. Their behaviour is inherently nihilistic and poses a serious threat to peace and security in the region.

The militia respects no order and has no regard for civility and the universal values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

The group undertakes forceful conscription of locals, suicide bombings, youth indoctrination, radicalisation and recruitment of children and women as suicide bombers.

Since it started its activities four years ago, Al-Shabaab has constantly provoked the Government of Kenya through threats of terrorist attacks issued by its top leadership.

It is Al-Shabaab that claimed responsibility for the Kampala coach bombing in Nairobi and who abducted, killed and maimed Kenyans at the border towns of Dadajabula, Liboi, Diif and Mandera.

It is also Al-Shabaab militiamen who kidnapped and killed people within Dadaab refugee camp.

It is their well-known operational doctrine to recruit and indoctrinate Muslim youths in Kenya with the intention of turning them against their own people and government.

This is why the Kenya Government launched Operation Linda Nchi along the Kenya-Somali border and has endeavoured to strengthen its civil defence and other security organs to counter the threat.

It is a well known fact that Al-Shaabab thrives on insecurity and instability. Thus, peace and tranquillity are anathema to them.

The militia group breeds disorder and disharmony and thus lays fertile grounds for it to engage in terrorism, piracy and even forceful conscription of local youths.

Al-Shabaab has proved provocative, unnecessarily aggressive and disrespectful of our territorial integrity.

It is in view of this that the Kenya Armed Forces are deployed along the Kenya-Somalia border in fulfilment of their constitutional mandate to defend the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Kenya as is the case with other common borders.

Let the militia group fight its own wars but leave Kenya alone. It should not draw Kenya into its lairs of disorder and anarchy.

As a civilised nation, Kenya maintains its traditional core principles and universally recognised norms of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states and good neighbourliness.

Bogita Ongeri is the military spokesman