“Africa Press 05/12/05: The Catholic and Protestant United Council of Bishops in Kenya (CPUCBK) recently met with the Ugandan High Commissioner in Nairobi and requested that Uganda change it’s policy towards the Christian terrorist organizationLord’s Resistance Army. Said Bishop Paul Imani for CPUCBK: “Christians were not happy with the force used in the pursuit of terrorism suspects. Ugandan forces should not bomb places they suspect to harbour terrorists, without considering the safety of the innocent”. The “story” above is complete fiction, but this one from The Sunday Standard, where Muslim leaders directed an identical plea at the British High Commissioner to Kenya, Adam Wood, is accurate. Similar protests caused Kenya to shelve an anti-terrorism bill in 2005, which never mentioned Islam whatsoever. The Kenya government may be listening to the pro-jihadis more than their allies in the war on terror.
Elsewhere stories in the Standard’s Dec 4th Digital Edition highlight a serious and “baffling” discord between Kenya, the US, UK and the UN over snubbing anti-terrorism officials, dismantling anti-terrorist training courses in Kenya and an indifference verging on neglect by government Ministers to the subject. Indeed it is reported that Kenya does not consider anti-terrorism to be a “government priority”, despite that same terrorism nearly wrecking our tourist industry three times in seven years, killing almost 300 people and wounding 5,000 and official confirmation of the thwarting of numerous plots, seized “Stinger” missiles and more. The same edition also has an alarming story “Al Qaeda comes calling on Kenya’s doorstep” about a Somali Al-Qaeda base just across the border.
Kenya must be the only affected nation in the world, including Islamic ones, to be actually going backward in it’s international obligations, under UN resolutions, to combat terrorism in a pro-active fashion. The Standard Group of media pay a lot more attention to this subject than the bigger Nation Group, who could more accurately be called “Al-Nation” . It devoted acres of newsprint to killing the anti-terrorism bill. The Standard is to be congratulated, and the government put on notice that one more terrorist attack in Kenya will probably finish off our tourism industry for good, and could cause Kenya to lose it’s status as the hub of East Africa. And this is not a priority?
As a prominent Kenyan lawyer and immediate past head of the Law Society of Kenya commented recently, Kenya has no law to prevent anyone talking as much as he likes on a cell phone to Osama Bin Laden, if he can find the number. We have no anti-terrorism unit, specific legislation or policy. Meanwhile, back in Somalia…………
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