Vigilance necessary amid strides in war on terror

Kenya Defence Forces

Kenya Defence Forces in Somalia during the 'Operation Linda Nchi' mission.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • Kenya finds itself in the middle of the global war on terror simply by dint of our geographical location.
  • High-profile attacks have kept Kenya on unyielding high alert.

The general security situation in Africa, Kenya included, has markedly improved since the 1990s. Bu there are challenges, specifically on emerging violent extremis and ideological radicalisation-related terror frontier. The metamorphosis of ideological- and religious-inspired terror activities into a trans-national and multi-dimensional phenomenon presents big challenge to states security, safety and stability today.

Kenya finds itself in the middle of the global war on terror simply by dint of our geographical location in a neighbourhood vulnerable to ideological extremism. The ease of access through porous borders, the Indian Ocean shoreline’s proximity to the Middle East and Kenya’s geopolitical and diplomatic associations play a role in attracting hostile sentiments from terrorist ideologues.

High-profile attacks — including the 1998 US Embassy bombing in Nairobi, 2013 Westgate mall siege, 2015 Garissa University raid and January 2019 DusitD2 hotel bombing by Al Qaeda-allied Al-Shabaab — have kept Kenya on unyielding high alert. Its mission-critical objective has pivoted to unrelenting recalibration of approaches in confronting and disrupting terror networks and ideologies in all their shapes, shades and sizes, anywhere.

To effectively deal with traditional and emerging terror threats, the country has adopted a holistic and integrated approach which combines both soft and hard counter-terrorism and violent extremism (CVE) measures at national and regional levels.

War on terrorism

Among tools are a raft of anti-terrorism laws and institutional mechanisms to proactively deal with risks. These include Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2012 (amended in 2019) and a revamped National Strategy for Countering Violent Extremism (NSCVE) unveiled in 2016. The strategy creates tools to galvanise CVE efforts by rallying state and non-state actors, including the government, communities, civil society, private sector and international partners.

The nerve centre of the NSCVE strategy is a multi-agency mechanism with the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) at its core. NCTC deploys synergies between traditional intelligence gathering tools and soft approaches like provision of jobs, business opportunities and life skills to the youth to reduce the vulnerability to radicalisation. The agency also runs rehabilitation programmes, initiatives and campaigns to enhance de-radicalisation and reintegration for returnees from Somalia. NSCVE has also rolled out County Action Plans to guide counter-CVE efforts at the county level.

At the regional level, Kenya has simultaneously deployed hard or military approaches to prevent terror networks from breaching its territorial integrity to stage terror attacks. These include the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) deployment under Africa Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) for close to a decade.

While the war on terrorism cannot be won overnight, it is clear the progress can be replicated and expanded to a long-term grip and defeat the enemy. There is every reason for Kenyans to be upbeat and optimistic about the future.

Mr Kwinga is a political scientist. skwinga@ gmail.com