Thursday 3 November 2011

Shock and awe in Somalia? Sorry, it isn’t a board game

enyans are justifiably worried too — artists, journalists and writers associated with Concerned Kenyans Writers have already issued a statement essentially saying that this is not being done in our name.

Diplomatic missions have issued upgraded security advisories to their citizens resident in Kenya. And, publicly, are taking a naive sort of wait-and-see position, professing lack of prior knowledge as to what Kenya had clearly been planning for a while.

The recent kidnappings attributed to Al Shabaab, based on changing official statements, were clearly just an excuse to legitimise the offensive.

Al Shabaab has itself denied responsibility for the kidnappings — somewhat curiously, given its propensity for publicity. And it has, naturally, promised retaliation.

Kenya’s security apparatus seems determined to trudge on. Its attitude is that all “irrelevant” security issues — the minor matter of human-rights violations committed by Kenyan security services in an almost routine manner, for example — can be disregarded as so much buzzing around of flies to be swatted away. Read more

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