Somali MPs plot to censure KDF in Parliament

Nairobi, 30 May, 2013 (SDN)-Somali MPs plan to file a motion sponsored by the Government in Parliament this week to censure activities of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF). Mohamedamin Hassan Abdullahi, an MP with the Somali federal Parliament said they are mobilising other parliamentarians to support a motion against the activities of KDF/Amisom in Kismayo, which they intend to table before the Speaker in the coming days. He said he is sure of passing the motion. This is set to further complicate the process of securing Kenya’s borders from the Al-Shabaab terror group, a process that was entering its homestretch. The Standard has also established the MPs are angry at what they term KDF’s “active involvement in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development sponsored political process” in newly created Jubaland. “Senior officials in the Federal government led by Farah Abdikadir, Minister for State in the Office of the President are spearheading the onslaught against Kenya,” an insider told The Standard. But what is puzzling is that Farah and other senior officials behind the scheme are Kenyan residents who have acquired Kenyan citizenship. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mahamud recently accused Kenya directly of meddling in Somalia affairs and claimed on numerous occasions that Amisom Sector Two (under Kenya/KDF) is fronting specific individuals to take over the leadership of Jubaland, allegations that Kenya has denied. Both KDF and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have maintained that they are neutral in the process that saw the election of President Ahmed Mohamed Islam mid this month. IGAD has also dismissed reports that it had backed Somalia’s government in opposing the newly formed Jubaland administration, but had taken the role of spearheading reconciliation between the two administrations in Mogadishu and Jubaland. “The IGAD communiqué did not condemn the just concluded election and the grassroots-led initiative that resulted in the election of President Ahmed Mohamed Islam and General Abdulahi Sheikh Ismail as his vice president,” a statement from Igad says. This development has now complicated Kenya’s plan to exit the war-torn country in what promises to jeopardize an operation that has already choked up over Sh18 billion and lost several lives.

Source: Standard Media (Kenya)