{"id":4342,"date":"2011-11-22T14:39:57","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T14:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/?p=4342"},"modified":"2011-11-22T14:39:57","modified_gmt":"2011-11-22T14:39:57","slug":"kenya-seeks-obama-support-for-somalia-incursion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/2011\/11\/kenya-seeks-obama-support-for-somalia-incursion\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya seeks Obama support for Somalia incursion."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

United Nations Permanent Representative in New
\nYork has appealed directly to the Obama administration for support for
\nKenya\u2019s incursion of Somalia to root out Al Shabaab Islamist rebels.<\/p>\n

In diplomacy reflective of President Kibaki\u2019s strategy of courting
\ninternational support for the war in Somalia, Ambassador Macharia
\nKamau early last week made a rare appearance at the Capitol Hill, the
\nseat of congressional power to make a case for Washington\u2019s support of
\nthe war.<\/p>\n

“We would love to see the international community, with the US right
\nup there, engaging in Somalia in ways in which they have not for quite
\na long time,” Ambassador Macharia Kamau told the press in Washington,
\nDC soon after meeting some members of US congress.<\/p>\n

Kenya deployed tanks and troops to the<\/p>\n

Al Shabaab-controlled southern Somalia on October 14 to fight the
\nAl-Qaeda-linked rebels the country blames for kidnapping foreigners
\nand making cross-border raids thus disturbing the peace and
\nthreatening the tourism industry.<\/p>\n

“We would like to see the US and the international community taking
\nadvantage of basically what Kenya is doing, which is putting troops on
\nthe ground, taking risks that need to be taken to achieve the goals
\nthat we all say need to be achieved, which is to bring peace and
\nsecurity to Somalia,” said Ambassador Kamau.<\/p>\n

But, Pentagon officials told National Public Radio\u2019s (NPR) Michelle
\nKelemen in an interview broadcast over the weekend that the US is
\nmonitoring the Kenyan incursion, but not providing assistance.<\/p>\n

The State Department is advising caution, said Donald Yamamoto,
\nprincipal deputy assistant secretary of state for Africa.<\/p>\n

“You don’t know what the consequences are going to be,” he said. “Look
\nat the Ethiopian incursion into Somalia, look at our own personal
\nhistory. It’s fraught with a lot of problems and dangers. The Somalis
\njust do not like foreigners in their area.”<\/p>\n

Yamamoto said Kenya’s motivations were understandable, but the US has
\ntried to keep focused on beefing up the African Union forces,
\nsupporting a transitional government and reaching out to major clans.<\/p>\n

“The overall issue and solution to the Somalia problem is going to
\nhave to be a regional, concerted approach, [an] international
\napproach, but also ultimately the Somalis themselves will have to
\nresolve this,” Yamamoto said.<\/p>\n

Ambassador Kamau\u2019s courting of lawmakers in DC among them Democratic
\nSenator Al Franken and Democratic Representative Keith Ellison of
\nMinnesota, seems to be bearing fruits. Late last week as a result of
\nMr Kamau\u2019s briefing, Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, a
\nstate with a vast Somali-American community that Al Shabaab has tapped
\nfor recruits, made a presentation in the House of Representatives
\nasking the US government to help Kenya deal with the Al Shabaab menace
\nonce and for all.<\/p>\n

Making reference to these links, Mr Kamau said Al Shabaab was training
\nover 40 known American citizens in Somalia, warning that there was a
\ndirect line from the group right back to American cities that poses a
\nclear and present danger for Americans.<\/p>\n

“We should never forget that what’s going on in Somalia, while it
\nmight appear to be far away, out in the middle of nowhere, has
\ntentacles that stretch back to the United States,” he cautioned.<\/p>\n

Ambassador Kamau made a fresh appeal to the United States to consider
\nimposing a blockade on the rebel-held Somali port of Kismayu to choke
\noff the rebels’ supply line, a move Washington has been reluctant to
\nsupport.<\/p>\n

“Why this has not happened is actually a little bit beyond us because
\nit does not require any troops on the ground, neither does it really
\nput anyone at any risk,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s really a question of moving their naval assets into positions
\nthat would ensure that these people are not able to continue to supply
\nthrough Kismayu,” which is an Al Shabaab “nerve center,” he said.<\/p>\n

The envoy said Kenyan forces had cleared rebels out of towns and areas
\nthey once controlled and suggested that “maybe the international
\ncommunity might take advantage of that to send down peacekeeping
\ntroops to ensure that these towns and areas are not re-infiltrated by
\nthe armed groups and terrorist elements.”<\/p>\n

US officials said Kenya has been making what one senior senate source
\ncalled “a full-court press” for Washington’s help on Somalia and
\nagainst the Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab, with top diplomats reaching
\nout to key lawmakers for help.<\/p>\n

The ambassador said he would also meet with non-governmental
\norganizations in Washington in a bid to improve the flow of
\nhumanitarian aid into Somalia.<\/p>\n

And he reminded US lawmakers wary of fresh commitments at a time of
\nbelt-tightening that “Kenya itself is not in the best of economic
\ntimes.”<\/p>\n

“But we ourselves have recognized that all our collective long-term
\ninterests demand that we make the necessary sacrifices now, because if
\nwe don’t, then the price that we shall pay, collectively, as an
\ninternational community, whether Europe, Asia, or the United States,
\ncould be quite severe,” he said.<\/p>\n

The month-old incursion caught the United States and others off guard
\nand has raised alarm among aid groups.<\/p>\n

Speaking on National Public Radio (NPR) over the weekend, ambassador
\nKamau said, “We surprised ourselves. We have never in our history
\nengaged in any kind of foreign adventure of a military sort. But I
\nthink what it is, is that matters did come to a head.”<\/p>\n

“When you are dealing with a violent group of murderous individuals,
\nyou have to come to a point where you make a decision: Do you continue
\nto allow the slow bleed to happen, so that the country becomes
\ncompletely anemic and unable to function, or do you, after 25 years of
\nliving next to a failed state, make a decision that you can no longer
\nafford to tolerate the situation?” he asked.<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United Nations Permanent Representative in New York has appealed directly to the Obama administration for support for Kenya\u2019s incursion of Somalia to root out Al Shabaab Islamist rebels. In diplomacy reflective of President Kibaki\u2019s strategy of courting international support for the war in Somalia, Ambassador Macharia Kamau early last week made a rare appearance at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-4342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-ogeysiiska-iyo-iidhehyada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4342"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4351,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4342\/revisions\/4351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}