category: Countries, Kenya, Politics Kenya to target Al-Shabab supporters in Nairobi

AFRONLINE

The Voice of Africa

 

Oct25 2

NAIROBI- Kenya has said it will carry out a major crackdown operation on supporters of the dreaded Somali militants, Al-Shabab in its capital after the ongoing pursuit of the Islamist group into Somalia is complete.

Kenya’s assistant minister for internal security, Orwa Ojode told parliament on Wednesday that he was going to organise the “mother of all operations” in Nairobi to flush out Al-Shabab elements in the country.

“This is like a big animal with the tail in Somalia. We are still fighting the tail and the head is sitting here” said Mr. Ojode.

The operation is seen to target the city’s suburb of Eastleigh, a booming business centre largely inhabited by Somalis mostly ethnic and some asylum seekers fleeing the long-standing war in Somalia.

He raised concerns over the rise in small arms among civilians, saying that the government will deal with those in the country illegally and other criminal networks.

The statement comes after Somali kidnappers of a French woman captured in Kenya earlier this month contacted the French government to pay ransom for her body after death in their custody.

Marie Dedieu, was kidnapped from her private beach home in Kenya near its border with Somalia on October 1. The 66 year old wheelchair bond was suffering from cancer and is likely to have died of blood poisoning for lack of her medication.

This is among the series of kidnappings in Kenyan territory by Somali gunmen targeting foreigners largely seen to render a blow on the Kenyan tourism industry. Earlier in September a British national David Tebbutt was killed and his wife Judith abducted from a luxury resort on the Kenyan coast, while last week two female Spanish aid workers with the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) were seized from the expansive Dadaab refugee complex near its border with Somalia.

The Al-Qaeda linked group has warned of retaliatory attacks over the ongoing mission by the Kenyan forces to pursue its fighters in Somalia territory, denying any involvement in the abductions.

President Mwai Kibaki during celebrations on Thursday to mark Heroes Day defended the operation by Kenyan troops saying the country was acting for its own defence. “The security of our country is paramount.

Source: NEWS from Africa