Hiiraan Online

Friday, October 26, 2012
By John Oywa

He said Kenya will become the biggest target for Al Shabaab’s bombs and grenades.

“Already, there is a heavy presence of the group’s sympathisers in parts of Kenya’s Coast, and in poor areas of Nairobi. Al Shabaab will be plotting revenge within Somalia and outside its borders,” he wrote in the influential Telegraph.

With the war against the Al Shabaab far from over, analysts say Kenya should be ready to spend a fortune in defending her people against the militant group.

Already, the effects of the war are already weighing down on the economy amid renewed security threats from the terror group.

The Government’s security agencies are spending more money on security surveillance while private companies and churches are digging deep into their budgets to beef up security in their premises.

The cost of additional security measures will in the long run be passed over to consumers and worshipers.

The terror group has on many occasions planned to blow high-rise buildings in Nairobi but the police have often nipped their plans in the bud.

Several people have also been arrested with deadly ammunitions and chemicals used in making bombs.

A number of Kenyans, including Police officers have in the past one year been killed in Al Shabaab grenade attacks in North Eastern and Nairobi.

The bloodiest attack occurred in Garrissa last July when terrorists hurled grenades in two churches, killing 15 people, among them women and children.

There have also been other sporadic attacks in public places and churches in Mombasa and Nairobi.

“The move to liberate Somali from the hands of Al Shabaab killers is a good move but it has put our country in an awkward position where insecurity now looms everywhere,” said a security analyst Jared Ngugi.

But Kenya appears determined to retain he soldiers in Somali despite the fears.

Last week, President Kibaki hinted Kenya will not be cowed by the new threats by Al Shabaab.

“We are aware that Al Shabaab may have just hibernated into new tactics after being vanquished by the KDF but the group still poses a threat to the territorial integrity of Somalia and Kenya,” said the President.

In a speech delivered during the ceremony to mark the first anniversary since Kenyan troops rolled into Somali, President Kibaki hailed the soldiers for a job well done and said Kenya will crush anybody trying to endanger the lives of Kenyans.

Defence Minister Yusuf Haji said President Kibaki pledged to retain the KDF force in Somalia until the country stabilised, but with the approval of Parliament.

Military sources estimate more than 3,000 Al Shabaab fighters have been killed since the Operation Linda Nchi started in October 2011. Kenya has lost about 30 soldiers.

Efforts to get the KDF operations communications officer Col Cyrus Oguna to comment on the latest development were unsuccessful as he said he was in a meeting.  He had not responded to out text message by the time of going to press.

Bloody wars

And it has also emerged the Al Shabaab, an offshoot of the global terror group — Al-Qaeda was extending its bloody wars beyond the Somali and Kenyan borders.

A latest report in the Telegraph say the group had issued threats of attacks against Great Britain’s interests.

This follows a High Court ruling overturning attempts to stop the Egyptian-born Imam from being sent to the US.

The Al Shabaab said this was “a testament to the reality of the west’s vicious war against Islam and the Muslims”, Al Shabaab said.

For this, the group said on its official Twitter feed, Britain faced another terror attack that would be deadlier than those on July 7 and July 21, 2005.

“Britain will pay the heftiest price for its brazen role in the war against Islam and endless brutality against innocent Muslims,” Al Shabaab’s press office tweeted on Monday.

“We remind the British government that we’re a nation that doesn’t tolerate oppression [and] their actions will be repaid in retaliatory measure,” the Telegraph reported.