It has been a long and elusive search for peace in Somalia

By BONIFACE ONGERI

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) initiated the current peace initiative in Somalia in 2005 at Embakasi in Nairobi.

While Kenya is helping the shaky government to train its police, Uganda is training the army. About 1000 Somali soldiers graduated recently from Bihanga Training Camp in Uganda.

There is similar training in Djibouti. The Somali trainees entered into Kenya through Mombasa.

Amisom police component is mandated to train, mentor, monitor and advice the Somali Police Force (SPF) to transform it into credible and effective force that meets the international standards on Human rights. Several Somali police officers have already received training in various fields, including cordon and search, traffic, investigation and de-mining.

At the Naivasha Conference in 2008 and a similar one in Nairobi in July 2009, the international community endorsed a request from Somalia Transitional Government (TFG) which stated that it needed some 5, 000 trained soldiers as a short term measure to restore order.

Somali police recruits undergo a drill at Manyani Training center near Mombasa. The country’s Interior Minister Ahmed Ali joined senior Kenya Government officials in visiting the trainees at the camp on Tuesday. [PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/Standard]

Some 3, 000 soldiers had already been trained and delivered to TFG through different bilateral initiative. The African Union (AU) says a lot need to be done to strengthen government.

Currently the Somali government is bolstered by the presence of Amisom, which was created, by an AU Peace and Security Council in 2007. The AU mandate is to conduct peace and security operations to stabilise the volatile situation.

Several Somali police officers have already received training in various fields, including cordon and search, traffic, investigation and train the trainers. Last December, 60 Somali police officers completed training sponsored by the United Nations Development Program in Uganda.

"Peace in Somalia was no longer an obligation but a duty to ensure stability in the region," said Kipruto Kirwa, Kenya’s representative at the Inter-Government Government Authority on Development (IGAD).

The AU has often asked African government to send troops to Somalia to bolster peace but only Uganda and Burundi have responded. There are about 8,000 Amisom troops in Mogadishu where the Somali government is holed from the marauding Al-Shabaab militants.