State has little to show in fight on terrorism

By David Ochami

Between January and July, Kenya approved two crucial laws to fight organised crime and check money laundering. This became the most successful attempt ever to fight terrorism, narcotic drugs trafficking and other emerging transnational crimes.

Although approved by Parliament in late 2009, the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Bill actually became law in January, when the President assented to it.

Of note, however, is the fact that despite passing the laws on money laundering, the Government is yet to publish guidelines to implement it.

The Prevention of Organised Crimes Bill was approved by Parliament on July 15, and signed into law by President Kibaki about two months later.

The Bills were not approved without opposition from some MPs who believe the laws consist of wide powers borrowed from failed anti-terrorism legislation. They alleged they were designed to oppress some communities in the name of fighting terrorism.

From 2004, Parliament had failed to enact the two legislations despite suffering two major terrorism attacks blamed on Al Qaeda and its allies in Somalia, which lately has become a major haven of modern sea piracy, notwithstanding the growing threat from homegrown terrorists.

Some United Nations officials allege proceeds from piracy off the Somalia coast and international drug trade for which Kenya is a major conduit, have been ploughed into the local economy.

Failure to enact anti-terror law was attributed to fears that legislation proposed in 2004 provided legal leeway to security agencies to violate civil liberties of terrorism suspects and organisations.

Anti-terror laws

When the legislations were brought to Parliament, Muslims and civil liberty organisations argued the Government was trying to reintroduce anti-terror laws through the back door.

This was the same opposition that met the Anti-Terrorism Bill, which was never passed in the House.

Recently, Prime Minister Raila Odinga promised the Government would introduce an anti-terror law that addresses the fears of all concerned groups.

In the past year, the country encountered violent riots, illegal deportations, jailbreaks and grenade attacks linked to terrorism. About a dozen Kenyans including human rights defender Al Amin Kimathi remain holed up in Uganda jails on terrorism charges after they were arrested in Kampala or secretly being extradited there by Kenya police.

The most sordid events of the year involved detonations on December 3 and 20, which killed about four people.

The killing of a police officer in Nairobi’s Eastleigh area on December 3, and the subsequent explosion outside a Kampala-bound bus remain unsolved.

Police, however, see the hand of the Al Shabaab militia of Somalia in these.

In the Eastleigh attack, some media outlets alleged three people lodged a grenade at a police vehicle at an intersection, but police later confirmed the slain officer was carrying the device under his seat when it exploded.

And when a Russian-made grenade went off at River Road in Nairobi, Uganda police chief Kale Kayihura claimed "a Somali national" had detonated it, implying Al Shabaab’s involvement.

But the Somalia insurgent group, which claimed responsibility for the July 11 attacks that killed 76 people in Kampala, has not claimed responsibility for the December 20 attack.

Meanwhile, conspiracy theories rage regarding the identity and motive of the alleged bomber.

Kenya police claim the suspected bomber, Albert Molanda, was a Tanzanian who "acted alone".

But a theology college where Albert allegedly studied sprung new information alleging he (Albert) was indeed a Christian religious student returning to his native Democratic Republic of Congo after years of study in Kenya.

Another threat to security came through the January riots surrounding arrival, detention and deportation of Jamaican Muslim cleric Abdullah al Faisal.

The secret arrival of Abdullah, a hate speech convict in the UK, into Kenya on December 24, last year, highlighted threat Kenya faces through its porous borders.

Several deaths

Al Amin and other Muslim rights advocates publicised his detention igniting a chain reaction of street actions that led to several deaths and Al Amin’s detention.

Al Amin was to later find himself in Uganda jails from September 15, when together with lawyer Mbugua Mureithi, they went to organise the defense for Kenyans detained over the July 11, Kampala bomb. The lawyer has since been released.

The threat of porous borders and security lapses reared its ugly head once more when international terror suspect Hussein Hashi Farah, slipped from Immigration and police officials in Busia on March 13, in unclear circumstances. A promised investigation remains under wraps to date.

Despite a decade and-a-half with terrorism threats, Kenya still suffers Intelligence failures and security lapses besides the lack of forensic capacity to investigate them when they occur.