US pushes Nairobi into anti-Houthi campaign as EA peers steer clear
Crew members from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower conducting flight operations in response to increased Iranian-backed Houthi malign behavior in the Red Sea on January 22, 2024.
The US and its allies are applying both pressure and soft power to Kenya to support the war on Houthis in Yemen – and by extension Israel’s war in Gaza – targeting to end a disruptive series of strikes on ships ferrying goods through the Red Sea.
Nairobi has in the past fortnight hosted senior US intelligence and defence chiefs, including Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns and head of the Africa Command (Africom) General Michael Langley. Their visits, about whose outcomes the government kept mum, yielded pledges of security and intelligence cooperation. Gen Langley also visited Somalia and Djibouti, while the CIA boss toured Somalia and DR Congo.
