Kenyan police seek stronger ties with Somali community
Kenyan security agencies have praised the Somali community in Nairobi for their co-operation in the on-going war against al-Shabaab. They said the fear of targeting Somalis is unfounded, and denied that security forces are biased in the war on terror.
“The Somali community has been very helpful to the security organs in forwarding information about suspicious individuals or activities,” said the director of the Kenyan police criminal investigations department, Muhoro Ndegwa. “Some have come forward in person, but many use the hotline that we have opened for those who are not confident enough to reveal their identity.”
Ndegwa told Sabahi the anonymous hotline has helped authorities with a number of arrests and is a testament to the cordial relations with the Somali community concerning security efforts against al-Shabaab militants in Kenya.
Members of the Somali community and Somali organisations in Nairobi declined to speak on the record when contacted by Sabahi. Human rights activists, however, have complained of excessive police focus on Somalis living in Kenya.
Omar Hassan Omar, former vice-chair of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission told Sabahi that security forces have focused investigations on the Somali community and the Muslim segment of the population, “which creates room for abuse”. The only way to overcome fears in the community and win its trust is to broaden the focus to include more groups and prevent incidents of power abuse by publicly investigating allegations, Omar said.
Stephen Mutoro, CEO of the Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations (KARA), an umbrella organisation of all neighbourhood associations in the country, said the increased presence of police in Somali neighbourhoods has “raised a lot of questions on whether it is targeting one community”. Muturo said there are al-Shabaab militants from other ethnic groups, as the terror group does not recruit exclusively among Somalis.
Ndegwa denies that there is tension between the police and the Somali community, and said police do not target any specific community, as evidenced by recent events where they arrested al-Shabaab suspects of other ethnic groups.
“Human rights groups and activists have always wanted to portray the police as biased in the war against terror, but that is not true,” Ndegwa said. “Terrorism is real, hence to succeed in fighting it, we need to avoid sensational issues.”
“[The supposed] special attention that internal security forces pay to Somalis has led to stereotyping among other Kenyans,” Mutoro said. “Some Kenyans now view all Somalis as terror suspects, which has created social and economic barriers, since some people now shun visiting Somali business establishments.”
He says these actions may cause some members of the Somali community with information on terror suspects to avoid coming forward for fear of arrests or stigmatisation.
To counter this fear, KARA has designed several community-based peace and security initiatives. Mutoro says Somalis have been part of the programmes, although they were not targeted specifically.
“Amani Mtaani was one of such initiatives, whose aim was to encourage community policing among residents living in crime-prone neighbourhoods around the city,” Mutoro said. “We also encourage the community to voluntarily come out with information that might help the police, because this will gradually erode the suspicious perceptions [against them from] the authorities and the police.”
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