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Nairobi_Star (Nairobi)
****** Kenya: Eastleigh Taxi Drivers Decry State Operation On Al-Shabaab ******
Stephene Sangira
26 October 2011
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The on-going operation to flush out remnants of the terror group al-Shabaab has
not gone down well with taxi operators in the sprawling Eastleigh estate. The
operators decried that all of a sudden, business has disappeared with most of
their customers going underground. Most of them were the illegal immigrants
whom they used to shuffle daily to UN agencies and Nordic embassies across
town.
The government last week vowed to subdue the Somali militant group sympathizers
suspected to have infiltrated parts of Eastleigh. Assistant Minister for
Internal Security Orwa Ojode told Parliament that security has been beefed up
around major installations and all entry points, adding that patrols around the
city by the Kenya Army soldiers are also underway. "The Al Shabaab-issue is
like a big animal, with the tail in Somalia, and the head of the animal is
hidden here in Eastleigh. 'After the Somalia thing is over, I am going to do a
mother of all operations here in Nairobi to remove all al-Shabaab and Al
Qaeda,' Ojode said.
Eastleigh is an area hugely populated by members of the Somali community. It
has also been sighted to be an area that has been a major recruitment base for
Al-Shabaab. The residential estate, known as 'small Mogadishu', is also
inhabited by illegal Somali emigrants who have managed to escape from the
Dadaab refugee Camp. 'Immediately Ojode announced that a major operation would
be carried out here in Eastleigh, our business fortunes started dwindling,'
said Harrish Kinyanjui, who has operated a fleet of taxi cabs in Eastleigh
10ths Street for the last nine years.
Copyright © 2011 Nairobi Star. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica
Global Media (allAfrica.com).
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