Published on 22/10/2011
The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is… Strike as hard as you can, and keep moving on. Ulysses S. Grant [1822-1885] US President
Sarah Palin, that indefatigable US celebrity politician says that her descending priority of loyalty and love is God, family and country. And it is true for many. Our love for country is complicated. There are times we don’t support the inaction or activities of our country, and there are times we wholeheartedly do. When our army crossed the border over to Somalia to pursue Al Shabaab, our love for Kenya has never been higher. For 48 years, our army stayed in the barracks and getting promoted to ranks of General, Colonel and Brigadiers without having seen battle.
Somalia is a country with tortured history. To understand its geography and people, one needs to read a chapter on it in Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles by Richard Dowden. Dowden was Africa’s editor for The Economist in the 1990s. In his book, he says of Somalia: "It is easy to see Somalis as a product of their landscape: craggy, hard, arid, a vast griddle, scoured and scorched daily by the sun for a thousand years…Somalis have created a culture of war." In its history, the only time, Somalia took a break from war was when ruled by dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. When Barre was overthrown in 1991, Somalia relapsed into chaos and has never recovered.
We share a 682km border with such a country and we have to decide how we want our future with her. Somalia has been split four ways: self-declared independent Somaliland to the northeast, autonomous Puntland to the northwest, area around Mogadishu under internationally recognised Transitional Federal Government and lawless south.
Across the country, there is complete breakdown of all institutions and structures that make a nation-state, and Somalia ranks at the bottom of failed states. With the longest coastline in Africa measuring over 3,000km, Somalia has made maritime piracy and kidnapping part of its national economy.
Each country has strategic interests it has to protect and keep. We have strategic interests to be allies of Ethiopia, South Sudan and Tanzania; Uganda has to decide what it wants. As for Somalia, it cannot be our ally in the foreseeable future.
We, therefore, as a country have to impose our will on them. We have two choices on Somalia. On one part, a suggestion I have made before, we split Somalia along the 4˚ N Latitude; Ethiopia guards the northern part and we take the south. Mogadishu and Kismayu will fall on our side.
Bottom line, we cannot allow Somalia to continue in chaos as it can wreck our economy and destabilise the region.
There are certain international crimes that cannot be derogated from and they include terrorism, crimes against humanity, genocide and maritime piracy. Al Shabaab, which is a local franchise of Al Qaeda, commits all these crimes with abandon and impunity.
Its criminal activities impact on our country directly. Our tourism is imperiled. Our maritime trade and access to our maritime zones are endangered. There is a strong correlation between their criminal activities and the unexplained property speculation in Kenya. There is real fear that soon, the property bubble will bust in Kenya and further accelerate our economic down turn. Our economy is thus being held to ransom by a country though large is occupied by less than nine million people.
Article 51 of the UN Charter enjoins each member state the inherent right to protect itself from external enemies. The article is such that it gives each member state a blank cheque to choose the means and timing of self-defence and without limitation to territory. US invaded Afghanistan under this article.
In crossing over to Somalia, we aren’t invading a legitimate government, but attacking a terrorist organisation. In attacking and pursuing Al Shabaab, we don’t need the permission or invitation of the ramshackle government in Mogadishu. Our only obligation is to find time to inform the UN Security Council.
Like the US’s Patriot Act, we need a comprehensive legislation to deal with such terrorist organisations like Al Shabaab and even local ones like Mungiki, Angola Msumbiji and Chinkororo. Sending our army across is not sufficient. We need to know the entire organisational structure of Al Shabaab and have our own Ace of Spades for its leadership so that each time we kill or capture them, we cross it out. We also need to know and trace its financing and support systems. Anyone who offers financial, refuge and moral support to a terrorist organisation is a terrorist. Under our current laws, the only penalty for anyone who undermines our sovereignty is death. And such statute will also clearly exempt terrorists from the Bill of Rights.
In sending the army across, the President did not need parliamentary approval. His powers were as Commander-in-Chief of our defence forces. We need parliamentary approval if attacking a foreign state. Al Shabaab is a non-state terrorist organisation.
The only thing we needed from Mwai Kibaki was to go on national TV and radio immediately after to tell us that for the first time in our history, we are sending our army to war. He may have missed an opportunity to engrave in the national psyche the image of a war statesman. But as for sending the army to Somalia, we are fully behind him. However, our victory will be in the partition and annexing part of Somalia or imposing a vassal state. Anything less than this, will be hollow. Let’s give the world a fait accompli. They will accept it. The world needs the Suez Canal and Indian Ocean opened to international maritime trade as it always was. The world will be grateful to us.
—dkipkorir@ktk.co.ke
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