Step up fight to secure ‘ungoverned spaces’ in Somalia

• President Kenyatta declared that al-Shabaab will “have no time to breathe”.
• And his Chief of Defence Forces, General Samson Mwathethe, vowed “to avenge every drop of blood Kenyan troops” shed in El-Adde.
• His men have recaptured the El-Adde base barely five days after the attack.
• What really transpired before and after the El-Adde attack may not become clear until after the completion of investigations by a board of inquiry that the KDF set up.   |

Daily Nation | By PETER KAGWANJA | January 25, 2016 – In the wake of the deadly terror attack on Kenyan soldiers in Somalia on January 15, a mix of anger, unity and patriotism rent the air.

The assault calls to mind the famous “Blood, Toil, Tears, Sweat” speech by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on May 13, 1940.

In what became a tour de force in patriotism and courage, Churchill declared in Parliament: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat” and vowed “to wage war by sea, land and air with all our might.”

His courage won him 381-to-0 votes against appeasement of fascism in the face of Adolf Hitler’s crusading Nazi forces.

After El-Adde, Kenya has taken to heart the wise counsel of Aristotle, the Greek philosopher and teacher of Alexander the Great: “You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honour.”

KENYAN RESPONSE

President Kenyatta declared that al-Shabaab will “have no time to breathe”.

And his Chief of Defence Forces, General Samson Mwathethe, vowed “to avenge every drop of blood Kenyan troops” shed in El-Adde.

His men have recaptured the El-Adde base barely five days after the attack.

What really transpired before and after the El-Adde attack may not become clear until after the completion of investigations by a board of inquiry that the KDF set up.

However, the battle for El-Adde echoes Alexander the Great’s Persian campaign.

When his military general and strategist, Permenio, suggested that the Greeks attack the Persian camp during the night, Alexander’s answer was clear: “I do not steal victory.”

The Al-Shabaab schemed to steal victory – in the night.

At around 4.30 am on January 15, between 600 and 800 al-Shabaab fighters and suicide bombers simultaneously attacked the two camps in the El-Adde camp – one camp housing the Somali National Army and the other 80-120 Kenyan soldiers.

These were part of 3,664 KDF troops in Amisom’s 21,500 strong peacekeeping force comprising 6,223 Ugandans, 5,432 Burundians, 4,395 Ethiopians and 1,000 Djibouti troops.

AL-SHABAAB STRATEGY

Its strategy, perhaps borrowed from the ISIS, was to outnumber (with a ratio of 1:10) and use massive force – three times more powerful than the vehicle bomb that killed over 200 people in the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998 – to subdue the Kenyan troops.

Attacks on the base came in four waves (a military term used to describe formation of troops) using Armoured Personnel Carriers loaded with Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices and commandeered by dozens of suicide bombers.

This was followed by another wave of Land-Cruisers fitted with machine guns (“technical”) and manned by suicide bombers; then came truckloads of suicide fighters.

Up to this point, the gallant Kenyan soldiers bravely held their ground.

But after hours of fighting, the fourth wave of a horde of between 250 and 300 battle-hardened Al-Shabaab fighters arrived on foot, out-numbered and over-gunned the Kenyans, and embarked on a shooting and looting orgy.

The Kenyans never ran away; the bulk of the fallen heroes were retrieved from their base, a clear mark of courage.

El-Adde was al-Shabaab’s third attack on Amisom bases in less than a year.

In June 2015, 54 Burundians were killed in an attack on their base in Leego; and in September it attacked the Ugandan base in Jannaale killing 19 soldiers.

It is believed that the vehicles used to attack the Kenyan base were looted from these attacks.

The Kenya Government reported that more than 80 KDF personnel were affected by the attack (which tallies up well with the 80 to 120 soldiers the El-Adde base held at any one time).

The Gedo region’s deputy governor estimated that 40 Kenyan soldiers were killed, with over 200 al-Shabaab fighters dead.

Al-Shabaab extremists failed to drive a wedge between the troops and their Somali hosts who shielded and sheltered injured peacekeepers.

KENYAN GAINS

Kenya has made gains in defence of freedom from terrorism at three levels.

First, freedom inspired Kenya to send its troops to Somalia on October 14, 2011, at a time when al-Shabaab was abducting and killing innocent tourists and aid workers.

But routing Al-Shabaab’s power and influence in Somalia is an unfinished agendum.

Second, Al-Shabaab’s Westgate attack in 2013 reminded Kenyans that in addition to defeating extremists inside Somalia, it was important to secure our cities and public spaces to ensure that innocent Kenyans did not become soft targets of terrorists.

Since June 2014, Al-Shabaab has not successfully launched a single attack in Nairobi or any of our cities. Between 2011 and 2014, Kenyan security forces have foiled no less than 20 planned terrorist attacks, many of them larger and potentially deadlier than the 1998 US Embassy bombing.

Third, after losing the “governed spaces,” the terrorists retreated to what has been theorised as “the ungoverned spaces” inside Kenya (mainly the frontier counties of Lamu, Garissa, Wajir and Mandera).

After the Garissa attack in April, Kenya’s security forces moved to drain the swamps of terrorism, confining Al-Shabaab to “ungoverned spaces” inside Somalia.

However, Al-Shabaab’s attacks on Amisom bases is a wake- up call to regional states, the African Union and the United Nations to step up the fight to secure “ungoverned spaces” in Somalia, now havens for local and international terrorists.

Our gallant heroes in El-Adde have used courage and patriotism as indispensable weapons in the defence of our country and civilisation against barbarism.