This archive report was first published on 5 January 2020.
Published on January 5, 2020
As the world welcomed the new decade, Kenyans were reminded of the ever-present threat of terrorism. A recent incident at a mall in Nairobi's Westlands, where a senior professional colleague was disturbed by a sound from the parking area, serves as a stark reminder of the danger that lurks in the shadows.
Westlands, a suburb frequented by Westerners, has borne the brunt of two of Kenya's worst terrorist attacks in the past five years. The most recent one in January last year claimed 27 lives at DusitD2 Hotel, while a similarly daring attack in September 2013 at Westgate Mall killed over 60 people.
Both attacks were claimed by the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab terrorist group, which continues to be active within the country. In the past month, the group has killed three passengers in a bus hijack in Lamu and blown off security vehicles with IEDs in northern Kenya.
Al-Shabaab's resurgence in Somalia, where it staged a bomb attack on a Mogadishu security checkpoint in late December, killing close to 100 people, is a worrying sign. The early gains made by the AU mission in Somalia (Amisom) stabilisation force, including Kenyan troops, appear to have been undermined by Somalia's divisive clan politics and the involvement of Middle East powers vying to control its oil wealth and commerce.
Speculation is rife that the latest deadly bomb attack in Mogadishu was sponsored by some of those Middle East countries. What should worry Kenya even more are the prospects of Somalia drifting into the hostile neighbour column, with the two nations locked in a maritime territorial dispute believed to be fuelled by external appetites for oil blocks in the Indian Ocean.
