UN Criticises Kenya Over Terrorism Reports

The East African (Nairobi)
NEWS
December 8, 2003
Posted to the web December 10, 2003

By Kevin J. Kelley
Nairobi
FOR THE third time in the past four months, the United Nations is criticising
Kenya for failing to report on its efforts to combat terrorism.
The latest expression of UN frustration with Kenya came last week, from a
committee monitoring sanctions against Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. The
committee names Kenya among 108 UN member states that are now at least six
months late in reporting on their efforts to identify terrorist suspects and to
halt the illicit flow of funds and weapons.
Kenya is also listed among 25 non-reporting nations in which the UN committee
says it has "a particular interest." Information indicates that Al Qaeda or
associated groups are currently active inside those 25 countries, the sanctions
committee says.
Criticism of Kenya's failure to comply with UN Security Council resolutions
mandating terrorism reports comes at a time when the United States is warning
of possible Al Qaeda attacks on downtown Nairobi hotels.
The UN sanctions committee further faults Kenya for ignoring requests for
information on the type of weapons used in last year's Al Qaeda attacks on the
Paradise Hotel in Kikambala and on an Israeli passenger jet leaving Mombasa.
The committee complains that its mission of monitoring an arms embargo against
Al Qaeda is made highly difficult by countries' unwillingness to furnish
important information.
"More teeth" may have to be added to UN resolutions to force countries to
comply with reporting requirements, committee members say. The 83 countries
that have submitted reports account for less than half the UN's membership, the
committee notes.
Kenya was initially criticised in August for missing a deadline for reporting
to the UN monitoring group. Its report was then nearly four months overdue. The
country was faulted again last month for failing to submit another report to a
separate UN committee that also tracks anti-terrorism initiatives.
The UN warns in the study released last Monday that "the Al Qaeda ideology has
continued to spread, raising the spectre of further terrorist attacks and
further threats to international peace and security."
Despite the heightened state of security in the country following the terrorism
threat alert, wooden dhows continue sailing into Mombasa's centuries-old port
every day, unloading everything from smuggled baby formula to illegal weapons -
all under the eyes of police and Customs officers bribed not to notice, Kenyan
and US officials told the press.
Nearly all the contraband comes from neighbouring Somalia, a stateless country
where Al Qaeda operatives procured missiles and explosives that were smuggled
by sea into Mombasa and used in twin attacks on Israeli targets a year ago
Friday, according to a recent UN report.
In the year since, little has been done to staunch smuggling in East Africa,
making it easy for terrorists to slip weapons through Kenya's ports and the
largely unpatrolled coves that dot its Indian Ocean coast, said a US official,
speaking on the condition of anonymity.
A deeply rooted culture of smuggling is a problem throughout East Africa. Al-
Qaeda has twice struck Kenya and American embassy sources insist the Islamic
terror network is plotting a third strike on; Kenyan police uncovered a plot to
destroy the new US Embassy this past June.
That makes smuggling along the predominantly Muslim coast of the East African
country - where Al-Qaeda is also known to be recruiting - a serious concern in
the war against terrorism.
There are senior Kenyan officials working to clean up the ports, but they are
fighting a well-entrenched bureaucracy - a battle that could take years to win,
said the US official, speaking from Washington.
"We cannot say there is no longer corruption at the ports," said Mombasa's
District Commissioner, John Egesa. "We know there are weapons coming in, we
find them each day in the hands of criminals."
He insisted Kenya's new government, elected last year on promises to stamp out
corruption, is cracking down at the city's old port and its modern container
facility, though he refused to elaborate. But a police officer who works at the
ports and spoke on condition of anonymity, said no action has been taken and
smuggling flourishes.
In August 2002, the UN said in a recent report, Al-Qaeda smuggled into Kenya
shoulder-fired missiles that were used in a failed attempt to shoot down an
Israeli airliner taking off from Mombasa's airport in November 2002. The
missiles, purchased in Somalia, "were smuggled into Kenya by sea," the report
said. "The launchers had been painted blue and white, presumably to camouflage
their real purpose and to minimise risk of discovery during onward transport to
Mombasa."
Around the same time the missiles were fired, suicide bombers detonated a car
bomb outside the Paradise Hotel north of Mombasa, killing 15 people.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press

   

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