Kenya Defense Forces must involve locals in fighting Al Shabaab in and out of Kenya

The recent attack on the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) camp in El Adde has cast a huge doubt on the effectiveness of the military strategy to defeat and eliminate Al-Shabab in Somalia. The attack, which occurred on 15 January 2016, not only deliberated the KDF, but also left dozens dead.  In the last weeks, the KDF attack in El Adde, Somalia has generated mixed reactions on the responsibility in the planning and the execution of the attack. It is argued that the local clan, Marehan, living adjacent to the KDF camp in El Adde has played a crucial role in the planning of the attack. The key question that emerges from all the developments that have taken place since the attack has been the factors that may have caused the AMISOM team, including the KDF, to lose the support of locals, even when it is pretty evident that the African Union Mission in Somalia has brought a level of stability.

When Kenya sent her troops to Somalia in 2011, majority of Kenyans, as well as the International community lauded the government for what appeared as a brave move to contain the Al Shabaab. It is no doubt Al Shabaab had wreaked havoc to the Kenyan tourism industry by kidnapping visitors along the Kenyan coast and killing innocent civilians in grenade attacks in Kenya’s big cities, Nairobi & Mombasa. The crude tactics of suicide attacks, the ambush of soldiers, civilians and guerrilla type warfare had made it increasingly difficult for Kenya to fish out Al Shabaab fighters in the country. The only plausible solution at it appeared (in the eyes of Kenyans) was smoking out Al Shabaab forces from the hideouts in Somalia.  Nonetheless, in doing so, Kenya not only threatened the peaceful relations that it had enjoyed with Somalis, who perceived Kenya as good neighbor, but also infuriated locals who term the KDF intervention as an “invasion”.