MOMBASA COUNTY: Germany has no plans to issue travel advisories as its main focus is to support Kenya fight international crimes including terrorism.
Ambassador Andreas Peschke said Wednesday terrorism is an international crime that should be fought by the entire international community and not left to a single country.
“Terrorism is an international crime. We have no plans to slap a travel advisory on Kenya at this difficult time,” Peschke declared.
The envoy condoled with Kenya over the terror attacks in Mpeketoni in Lamu and described it as a threat the world over which requires countries to unite and fight it decisively.
He said a training programme for police officers in Kenya by the German government through a co-operation programme has become more relevant following the terror attacks in Kenya.
Peschke said Germany would not issue travel advisories just because other countries were doing it, adding it has had long co-operation with Kenya and would maintain the ties.
He was speaking at the Mombasa county police headquarters when Germany donated motorbikes, computers, forensic kits, cameras and other equipment for Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale countries to help fight complex crimes such as terrorism.
The envoy announced that Germany would continue with training Kenyan police officers on combating complicated terrorism; drug trafficking, piracy and money laundering among particularly in light of the security challenges in the country.
Currently, Germany experts are training 30 police officers in Bamburi, Mombasa, on combating terrorism and other crimes.
“Every government in the world has a duty to fight terrorism decisively,” Peschke said.
He was flanked by Mombasa deputy county commissioner Mr Salim Mahmoud, deputy county police commander Mr Severin Kubai and the German police training programme co-ordinator Mr Diedrich Beers.
Mr Mahmoud said combating terrorism required the efforts of the international community because it was trans-border in nature and it was complicated.
“The war against terror requires the efforts of everybody because it has no boundary and it is technical and dynamic,” Mahmoud said.
He cited the recent seizure of a huge consignment of heroin by the Australian navy in the high seas near the Kenyan Coast.
Mr Kubai said terrorists were using new methods and that was why there was need for police and other security agencies to be retrained on the use of modern equipment and how to address the new challenge.
“We thank Germany for training our police officers on new skills of combating crime and equipment them. At the moment they training 30 officers in Bamburi form two weeks on combating terror,” Kubai said.
He said the challenge police have been facing in Mombasa was lack of flow of information on terror although the security personnel has acted on what they got.
“We do not ignore information from the public but the flow has been wanting. We appeal to them to volunteer more information on all types of crimes to make the county safe for all of us,” Kubai pleaded.
Mr Beers said Germany has trained about 1000 Kenyan police officers on combating complicated crimes since 2008.
He said Germany has held 39 training sessions for Kenyan police officers on combating piracy, drug trafficking, terrorism and money laundering which has become more relevant following the continued terror challenges.
“We train on new methods of combating and investigating such crimes. We intend to continue with such training in Kenya especially now that the country has been facing security challenges,” Beers said.
He said during the Westgate shopping mall terror attack in Nairobi, Germany assisted in identifying victims and conducting DNA tests.
Beers said Germany was willing to assist in the Mpeketoni crisis if invited to do so.
