Why East African countries remain vulnerable to terrorists

The security of countries in East Africa has come into focus following last week’s terrorist attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi that killed at least 67 people, with experts warning that the entire region is vulnerable.

The attack for which the Somalia-based Al Shabaab took credit — executed in the same style as the Mumbai siege in 2008 where terrorists stormed a hotel with guns and grenades and held people hostage — has revealed a more sophisticated and globally networked terror group determined to launch a series of attacks in countries in the region.

The nationalities of the attackers have not been established, but survivors’ descriptions revealed a multiracial gang. Chief of Kenya Defence Forces General Julius Karangi also told the media in the aftermath of the attack that the country was dealing with “global terrorists.”

The warning by global terror group Al Qaeda — to which Al Shabaab is directly linked — that it will strike softer targets, and reports from some of the survivors of the Nairobi massacre of the attackers warning that Westgate was the beginning of more and bigger attacks, has put the region on high alert.

Kenya has launched investigations into the Westgate attack, whose execution was co-ordinated by people said to know the layout of the mall in Nairobi’s upmarket Westlands area. At least 61 people have been reported missing after the mall was blown up in unexplained circumstances, bringing to an end a four-day siege.

Confidential documents made available to The EastAfrican show that Kenya’s National Intelligence Service shared information on impending attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa on September 13 and then again on September 20. The Westgate attack took place on September 21. The information was shared with Kenya’s Cabinet Secretaries for National Treasury, Interior, Foreign Affairs and Defence, and the Chief of Defence Forces.

Al Shabaab factional leader Ahmed Godane also posted a statement on a website warning countries that have their troops in Somalia, such as Kenya, Uganda and Burundi, that they must withdraw their forces or prepare for a longlasting war, blood, destruction and evacuation.

Earlier, in July, a report by the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, tabled at the UN Security Council, had warned the East African member states that affiliates of Al Shabaab operating in the region were trying to strengthen their numbers, posing both a regional and international threat, and that governments should be extra vigilant.

The siege at the mall is the worst terrorist attack in Kenya since the 1998 bombing by Al Qaeda of the US embassy in Nairobi, which was carried out simultaneously with an attack on the US embassy in Dar es Salaam. Since then, Al Shabaab, an offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union, has carried out a series of attacks, abductions and killings in the region. The worst was in Uganda in 2010, when more than 70 people were killed by two bombs as they watched a broadcast of a World Cup football match. Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.

Several people have been killed in Kenya in the past six years in various parts of the country after explosions were set off by suspected Al Shabaab operatives in the country.

In Tanzania, a grenade exploded in a church compound in Arusha in May this year, killing two people.

In Rwanda, grenade attacks killed at least three people and left scores injured in various incidents last year alone.

The attacks, especially in Kenya, have intensified since 2011, when the Kenya Defence Forces sent troops into Somalia in a bid to stem the insecurity created by Al Shabaab’s spread into the region. The KDF soldiers have since joined Amisom, which is still present in the country. Other countries with troops in Somalia are Uganda and Burundi.

According to some survivors of the Westgate attack, the attackers cited the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia and said they had come to take revenge.

Intelligence reports however indicate that Kenya has a twin problem with terrorists. While the Al Shabaab are said to be targeting the country over its forces’ presence in Somalia, other groups are also said to have been after Israeli and Jewish interests in the country.

It is noteworthy that the Westgate mall was Israeli-owned.

Security reports indicate that Al Shabaab has increased its recruitment among non-Somalis in the region, complicating efforts by intelligence agencies to profile the terrorist group.

It is said to lure unemployed youth with cash and a promise of a better life. The group is also said to spread its extremist Islam among young people with the aim of converting them into jihadists. The group has cells in the countries in the region, which have links to terror groups in various countries.

Intelligence reports also indicate that Al Shabaab is recruiting nationals of Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.

The UN report singled out Al Hijra (formerly the Muslim Youth Centre) as one of the Al Shabaab most potent allies active in Kenya. It stated that the centre’s operations were being financed by the Pumwani Riyadha Mosque Committee. However, the committee has denied the claim, accusing Western countries, mainly the United States, of witch hunting.

The porous borders between the region and Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia make it easy for the group to operate freely between countries. A security report seen by The EastAfrican, for example, reports Al Shabaab terrorists entering South Sudan through Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan, then crossing into Uganda and trying to cross into Kenya through Busia or Malaba. The group was being assisted by an Eritrean, who had residences in Sudan and Uganda.

Kenya is also home to the Dadaab refugee camps near the border with Somalia, from where some of the Al Shabaab members operate, according to security reports. In February this year, 33 Al Shabaab militiamen are reported to have entered Kenya through Hagadera and Dagahaley camps in Dadaab.

These militia are said to be responsible for attacks and abductions in northeastern Kenya, mainly targeting humanitarian workers and churches and security installations.

Rwanda is said to have on many occasions intercepted Al Shabaab elements at the entry points of Rusumo at the border with Tanzania as well as Kagitumba and Gatuna on the Uganda border. According to police spokesperson ACP Dismas Gatare, terrorism is a major concern for every country in the region because, “Everyone is a target of the perpetrators of terror, every country a potential target,” he said.

According to security experts, efforts to prevent some of the terrorist attacks are frustrated by corruption within the security forces, failure by the public to report suspicious individuals and politicisation of the crackdown on suspected terrorists.

For example, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the former Al Qaeda leader in East Africa and a senior Shabaab commander, who was killed in Somalia in 2011, had been arrested and freed in Kenya. Fazul, who masterminded the August 7, 1998 Nairobi bombing, had escaped from the Kenyan police two times. The police later expressed frustration, saying that he could have compromised key officers who kept him informed about the movements and strategies of their colleagues.

Another case is that of terror suspect Samantha Lewthwaite, dubbed the “White Widow,” who has been in Kenya many times but is yet to be apprehended. In fact, some reports indicate she could have masterminded the Westgate attack, and possibly been one of the attackers. She is said to have entered Kenya using a fake South African passport.

Justus Nyagaya, the Kenyan country director of Amnesty International, said Kenya would remain vulnerable as long its security agencies were casual about foreigners entering the country without being vetted. He said Kenya had some of the best-trained intelligence officers in the region, but light weapons and small arms still found their way into the country.

In the face of increasing attacks, the countries in the region have enacted harsh laws to deal with terrorism. However, George Musamali, a Kenyan security expert, says while these countries have enacted anti-terrorism laws and set up special police units to deal with terrorists, they must work as a unit in sharing intelligence.

The public should also be trained and equipped with observation skills, which can enable them to single out terrorists at the surveillance stage as they map out their targets.

According to Capt (Rtd) Simiyu Werunga, the chief executive of the African Centre for Security and Strategic Studies, East African countries must harmonise terrorism laws to make it easy for a member state to hand over those involved in acts of terror to another member state if necessary.

Reporting by Fred Oluoch, Jeff Otieno, Edmund Kagire, Emmanuel Mulondo, Emmanuel Rutayisire