KDF military discipline in peril

Jubaland President rebuts claims of racket involving KDF


November 13, 2015


The leader of the semi-autonomous Jubaland region of Somalia has refuted claims of charcoal and sugar smuggling through the port of Kismayu, and stated that Kenyan soldiers have been unfairly accused of the trade.

Speaking during a press briefing in Nairobi on Friday President Ahmed Mohamed Islam pointed out that as far as he was concerned, there was no illegal trade of charcoal from Somalia or sugar into the lawless country through the port of Kismayu.

In a statement read on his behalf by the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President Absir Mohamed, he indicated that KDF undertook its duties professionally and its presence in the country has contributed to peace and security.

“It is unfortunate that the report ‘Black and White’ authored by a British citizen is unaware of the Jubaland administration responsibility over the sea and airport in Kismayu. Further, it also fails to recognise the mandate and roles of AMISOM operations in Sector II and in the rest of the country,” he said.

He described the report as a fabrication and that nothing illegal was taking place in Jubaland.

“The report also alleges that my administration works hand in hand with KDF and Al Shabaab in the illegal business. It also accused the Kenya Defence Forces of engaging in illegal charcoal and sugar business, human rights abuses such as rape, torture, abduction and the killing of innocent civilians and livestock,” he stated.

He further said that there has been no mistreatment of its citizens there, raising questions as to the authenticity of the report.

“The very people said to be mistreated by KDF are supposedly my people, residents of Jubaland. It is interesting that my administration has not been made aware of such mistreatments. This disconnect raises questions about the truth of these claims,” he explained.

Mohamed was reacting to a report released Thursday which claimed that KDF soldiers are abetting the illegal trade with senior officials profiting from it.

“As far as I am concerned, KDF continues to be a professional force since its entry into Somalia in 2011 and its presence in Jubaland has contributed towards the peace and security we are currently enjoying,” he said.

He thanked the government, the people of Kenya and AMISOM troops for their support and sacrifice made to ensure that peace, security and stability are realised in Somalia.

“I also want to thank the KDF for the sacrifice and exemplary performance in Sector II specifically the liberation of more than 20 towns including Kismayu. Indeed, it has been a difficult task but through determination they succeeded and the Somali people will always be grateful to them,” he stated.

“This is not the first time that these issues of charcoal and sugar have been highlighted. In 2013, a UN report made similar false accusations without tangible evidence against KDF and my administration. Having read the report released yesterday, it is clear that it is a repetition of previously false reports and allegations and it offers nothing new,” he said.

The report alleged that Kenya’s army is involved in a Sh40 billion sugar smuggling racket in Somalia that also funds the Al-Qaeda militants it is supposed to be fighting.

The report is based on months of research conducted in Somalia and Kenya, including interviews with serving Kenyan officers, United Nations officials, Western intelligence sources, sugar traders, porters and drivers.

The report also accused Kenyan troops of “widespread” human rights abuses – including rape, torture and abduction – and conducting air strikes “targeting crowds of people and animals” rather than the militant training camps it claims to bomb.

Kenyan army spokesman, Colonel David Obonyo, denied the allegations, insisting Kenyan soldiers were fighting hard as part of the 22,000-strong African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

MALCOM LUMUMBA, Geza Ulole
 
So far 20 towns liberated from alshabaab, but when people talk about KDF, they only major in the minors.
 



The so called Journalists for Justice and the Kenyan journalists involved in the publication of that report have since failed to substantiate the claims when they were requested to table the evidences they had gathered


KDF wants evidence of involvement tabled so that heads roll
January 4, 2016


One thing that strikes a visitor to Kismayu Port, Somalia, is lack of charcoal on the streets.

The situation has changed since May 2013, when Mr Ahmed Mohammed Islam, popularly known as Sheikh Madoobe, was elected President of Jubaland.

Unlike then, the streets are not lined with the mountains of charcoal that its previous administrators, Al-Shabaab militants, thrived on.

Since then, though, the United Nations Monitoring Group has reported twice that the Kenya Defence Forces and Jubaland government were illegally exporting charcoal and importing sugar.

With the connection between the two and Al-Shabaab, the reports said, KDF and the Jubaland government were effectively giving the group the resources needed to go about its murderous campaign.

UN Monitoring Group reports are usually based on data and contain what researchers have heard — like the reported association of a Senate worker and the terrorists.

JOURNALISTS FOR JUSTICE

The reports form the basis of investigations to establish if what researchers have been told is true.

To these reports was added another last month by Journalists for Justice — a local NGO — saying KDF was heavily involved in the charcoal and sugar trade.

Compiled by Mr Ben Rawlence, a rights activist who has worked in Somalia, with the help of four anonymous researchers in Garissa, Nairobi, Dadaab and Kismayu, the report angered the KDF and Jubaland administration.

“When that report came out, I was in Nairobi,” President Madoobe told the Nation in Kismayu two weeks later.

“I don’t how that came about.”
So then, where did the charcoal go?

Mr Madoobe said Jubaland went by the resolution of the UN Security Council to stop the production and export of charcoal.

“After they stopped the trade, the large mound of charcoal left belonged to 32 businessmen, whose names we have,” President Madoobe said.
That charcoal was taken to the outskirts of the port city.

Mr Abdifatah Mohammed, who lives nearby, told the Nation that the charcoal is bought by residents for domestic use.

SELL REMAINING STOCK

A sack of charcoal goes for $10 (Sh1,000) and Mr Mohammed’s plea was for the trade to resume, or for the businessmen to be allowed to sell the remaining stock.
Brig Daniel Bartonjo, the commander of KDF’s Sector Two, expressed his surprise at the reports. He said KDF only provided security and was not involved in business.
The KDF contingent at the port is the fourth since Kismayu was taken in October 2012. The soldiers have been there since December 23, 2014.

“Whoever raised that issue should provide evidence,” Brig Bartonjo told the Nation.

“They talk of senior military officers. We’d want them to provide evidence so that hard decisions are taken.”
He said he would be the first to resign if it was proved that he took part in the trade.

Brig Bartonjo said claims that 3,000 tonnes of sugar left the port for Kenya every week were ridiculous.

SEARCH VESSELS

He said KDF soldiers secured the sea port and the international airport at Kismayu while the Jubaland administration managed them.

Lt Anthony Kibet, the officer from the Kenya Navy in charge of maritime operations, said their job there is to board and search vessels for arms and other contraband and to seize those that are bringing in the unwanted.

He has been at the port for a year and said has never seized any ship that was bringing weapons into the port. The Navy also patrols the sea around the port throughout.

The sea port is certainly busy.

When the Nation was there on the weekend of November 21, there were two large ships and two small ones moored and unloading. One had arrived from Dubai with cars, timber stamped ‘Made in Germany’ and the other was stacked high with containers.

The large ships use their inbuilt cranes to unload their massive cargo. The smaller wooden ones are unloaded by the loan mobile one, the goods they being placed in a large net and then swung onto the trucks, where it is arranged by loaders.

There was a constant stream of vehicles leaving, trucks loaded with 50-kilo sacks of rice and boxes of spaghetti that form the staple food of the Somalis.

Petrol and diesel for the hinterland is brought into Kismayu in drums and transported in the same open trucks, with no obvious regard for safety.

Before they leave the port, the drivers leap out and go to a table where men are seated with a book of receipts for the recording of tax. Those receipts are necessary to make it past checkpoints.

SUGAR SHORTAGE

There had been a shortage of sugar over the past month, General Mohammed Warsame Darwesh, the Internal Security minister said. Dekha Yusuf, who runs a shop in the town, said it was the first time there had been a shortage.

Abdullahi Dhubat Shill, the port manager, said exports from the port are minimal now- cow hides, sesame and dry lemon.
But the imports are many and the port is thriving.

Mr Shill said they receive an average of three ships per month bringing in rice, sugar, clothing and building materials, a huge increase from the time KDF liberated the town from Al Shabaab.

The port manager said about 300,000 kilograms of sugar are imported in a month.

To guard against leakage of revenue, the government has employed Shafi Hussein, a former resident of Minnesota who has come back home, as a Director of Fraud Protection.

From the port, the sugar finds its way into towns in Jubaland, which stretches from the border with Kenya in the north down to the coast, with Ras Kamboni and Ishakani and Kiunga on either side of the border.

Brig Bartonjo said that with the sugar received at the port entirely in the hands of the Jubaland state and the traders it taxes, there is no way KDF can be involved. “They have the right to take it anywhere in Somalia,” he added.

“When the vehicle crosses the border, that’s where we can arrest it. Not when it is in Somalia,” said the commander.

Although KDF has taken large parts of Southern Somalia from Al Shabaab, it is evident from the continued attacks on Kenyan soil that not the entire region is under their control.

It is also difficult to rule out that sugar that entered Somalia from Kismayu is finding its way into Kenya.

KDF wants evidence of involvement tabled so that heads roll


And u see MALCOM LUMUMBA, this tabling of evidence was going to be carried out publicly, but what happened? The so called JFjustice simply dint come foward with their evidence! What does that tell u?
Even the Kenyan public fast believed in those claims, and strongly condemned the KDF thievery in Somalia, until the circus that ensued when it came to providing the proof of those claims. It is the one report that badly tainted the credibility of the Kenyan journalist. And then it got worse when this other false report emerged and created so much controversy in the country...Herders stumble on Mandera mass grave
 
collinss said:
So far 20 towns liberated from alshabaab, but when people talk about KDF, they only major in the minors.
Click to expand...

The allegations about smuggling in Somalia arent as true as the following sexual abuse report in CAR and the DR Congo in which the JWTZ was implicated



Tanzania peacekeepers under investigation over sexual abuse in DRC
06/04 - 10:05
United Nations

Tanzania is expected to launch an investigation after U.N. confirmed eleven women, including six minors who were alleged victims of sexual abuse by its peacekeepers, were impregnated.

“We can confirm that out of the 11 allegedly abused women six were minors. Seven of the alleged victims have already given birth and four women are still pregnant. They have been referred to UNICEF which has deployed a team on the ground,” U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters.

Eleven of its troops stationed in DRC have been accused of sexual abuse and are now facing repatriation. Four of the eleven were deployed in the Central African country.

The United Nations military mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo said it is investigating claims of sex abuse by members of its Tanzanian contingent.

“At this stage, on the Tanzanian brigade, pending the results of an investigation all measures will be considered in terms of how we respond including potentially the repatriation of the unit and command accountability will also be sought.”

The United Nations reported 99 allegations of sexual exploitation or sexual abuse involving U.N. staff members last year, a sharp increase from the 80 allegations in 2014. The majority, 69, involved personnel in 10 peacekeeping missions.

Tanzania peacekeepers under investigation over sexual abuse in DRC | Africanews
 
Now the onus is on Geza Ulole and MALCOM LUMUMBA to present the real evidence of those allegations, without parroting the same claims by the JFJ which they themselves failed to substantiate. The so-called Journalists for Justice should thank their lucky star that the state dint proceed to press charges against them for libel. No wonder they (JFJ) have silent this days, disgraced.
 

Were these allegations proved?
😀😀😀😀😀😀
 

You are making another stupid analogy my friend.
American mission in the Middle-east is far more than Kenyan clown show in Somalia.
Casualties may be very high but we all know they are inevitable.

In a bigger picture America has rapidly expanded her Arms Export in the middle-east.
Whilst many middle-eastern states have become US- Vassals.
But ultimately there are no terrorists operating in the American soil; they are all grounded in the middle east and Europe.

While our Sister Next Door pretending to be a regional hegemony is not gaining anything from the Somalian invasion.
There is no trade expansion. Somalia got worse after the Kenyan invasion.
Casualties are high and yet, there are many aches and growing pains within the Kenyan community.
But again Al-Shabaab Militias are still operating within the Kenyan Soil.

This a huge difference so stop making a silly comparissons
 
oh, so now you equate winning to selling arms???? and justifying US casualties, just so you can make a point? hehe desperation enough? I will ask you, does the US share a 700km border with any country in m.east? until the day they do STFU! they have largely contained the terrorists bcoz they are miles away from their physical borders, they would have to cross countries to get to them......... look at the border with Mexico, even with a wall on some sections and motion sensor cameras , they havent been able to stop the drug trade or iligal immigrants crossing over................ besides that, these countries in europe are phisically different from m.easterners, therefore its easier to track terrorist cells, unlike in kenya where the border has somalis on both sides, and refugees crossing,..... now that Europe is taking some of the refugees. ... you have aeen what has happened in recent times.....

And FYI alshabaab got there teachings and training from non other than al-Qaeda. ... its as simple as that, so they coundt be more of the same....

and south Somalia is better than it was before, and I can provide plenty of evidence if you interested... I would suggest you do the same to proove that its worse.... from the days when alshabaab would forcefully marry teenage girls and carry out and coarse boys to join their ranks...... there are 15, 000 refugees who have gone back voluntarily, bussiness is booming... there are more girls than boys in schools (the boys must have joined AS) and they have been kept safe all this time.... so dude, get your facts checked...
 
Kafrican said:
oh, so now you equate winning to selling arms???? and justifying US casualties, just so you can make a point? hehe desperation enough? I will ask you, does the US share a 700km border with any country in m.east? .
Click to expand...

What a monotonous argument.
Now let me ask you!

Why is the Al-Shabaab failing to attack Ethiopia which is very near her borders just as Kenya is?
How is Israel managing to contain Islam militants who are just few blocks away from their border?
How did Russia manage to contain the Chechen militants who were the citizens of Russia?
How is Iran managing to repel the ISIL terrorists who are operating near her North Eastern Borders?

You are very dumb my friend!
Geographical Proximity is not a justification for the fatal inefficiency of the Kenyan Security Apparatus.
Now i believe common sense is no longer common, it is the highest form of thinking to some individuals.

Ethiopia Successful in Preventing Al-Shabab's Attacks
Source:Ethiopia Successful in Preventing Al-Shabab's Attacks
 
Wow, I dint know you are actually this clueless. ..terror attacks in russia country side are not uncomon.... if you need me to school you . and Russia usually responds by too much force.... look a a video of the appartment bombings and you'll get a picture


" 2013
In 2013 the Investigative Committee of Russia recorded 661 terrorist offences including 31 terrorist attacks, which claimed about 40 lives and dozens more injuries.
On 27 December 2013 a bomb exploded in a parked car in Pyatigorsk, killing three people. In December Volgograd bombings 34 people were killed in two separate suicide attacks
"


Israeli is a world renown merciless genius. their modus operandi of striking their enemies doen before they can be capable of striking them is second to non, just ask the palestinians. If isreal had a border with Somalia, israel would have attacked somalia in 1991 when somalia's govt collapsed and clans took over power and all the weapons that once a mighty somalian army had, and they would have persistently striked and group that seemed strong enough .


and then lets come to Ethiopia. powerful but fact is, they failed to hold kismayu when they attacked it in 2005.
recently, alshbab exist in south and central somalia. not in the upper side of somalia where most of Ethiopia-somali border is. the section where alshabaab can enter ethiopia is occupied by a diffent clan than what most alshabaab come from. this clan exist on both sides of the border and they are not friends with Ethiopia govt. but the thing is, they probably fear ethiopia more than they fear alshabaab..... ethiopia has like 2% media coverage when it comes to these things, you havent heard if the stories told by somalis who live in north kenya, of the things they hear happening along the som-Ethiopian border. of how if any villager even thinks of doing anything against the ethiopian govt, not only will they been neutralised, but his whole village too will be 'cleansed',

ethipia is a dictatorship that has mastetd the art of neutralising its enemies and leaving no evidence behind. even from that article you posted, at one point the official says .
"
“We know what lack of peace means, so the importance is well understood by our people," he said. "They don’t want anybody to distract that. Whenever they are going to come across any anti-peace element, any anti-peace force, terrorist force, they are going to expose them, they are going to fight them head on.”

coming from a dictatorship govt what do you think it means? what would make a marginalised area along the somali border be willing to do anything to prevent alshabaab or any "anti-peace" group from entering Ethiopia or be seen to be siding with the locals???? do you think they love ethiopia so much they just willing to die for it? ..... they have been straightended up, they know what will happen if they even think of siding with the enemy..


You are being redirected...


Ethiopian troops ‘massacre’ civilians near Somalia border


now unless you want kenya to adopt Ethiopian success tactics , I suggest you go scholol yourself about "the war on terror"
 
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