{"id":30416,"date":"2019-01-24T13:23:19","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T13:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30416"},"modified":"2019-01-24T13:23:19","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T13:23:19","slug":"kenyas-leaders-face-a-new-dilemma-in-fighting-al-shabab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30416","title":{"rendered":"Kenya’s leaders face a new dilemma in fighting al-Shabab"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It is a week since the deadly hotel attack<\/a> in Nairobi. Life appears to have returned to normal. But beneath the surface, Kenyan leaders have been left with a tough decision on how to proceed.<\/p>\n

Previously, every time a major attack by the armed group al-Shabab happened on Kenyan soil, the east African country responded by carrying out air strikes in neighbouring Somalia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Security forces will also carrying out security sweep in Eastleigh – a mainly Somali suburb in the Kenyan capital.<\/p>\n

But this time – because most of the attackers are Kenyan nationals<\/a> unlike in previous major attacks – government has been caught by a surprise.<\/p>\n

For the first time, a Kenyan national carried out a suicide attack on Kenyan soil.<\/p>\n

An impossible task<\/h2>\n

There is no love lost between Kenya and the al-Qaeda-linked armed group. Nairobi sent its troops into Somalia in 2011 to fight it.<\/p>\n

Al-Shabab lost string of towns to Kenyan and Somali troops. With that went lucrative revenues the group used to collect from these towns.<\/p>\n

As a result, the group said Kenyans are a legitimate target.<\/p>\n

Kenyan officials know they have to beef up security to prevent future attacks by the group – but how you do that is the burning question.<\/p>\n

Public spaces in Kenya are often guarded by unarmed private security guards. They are the country’s soft underbelly.<\/p>\n

Government has said it will issue firearms to security guards. But with al-Shabab now using Kenyan nationals to attack Kenya and deploying their weapon of choice – suicide bombers – it is a tough task if not impossible for any security guard to prevent such attack.<\/p>\n

Also, with al-Shabab seeing every Kenyan as a target to be killed, will Nairobi be able to send armed guards to every school, hospital, club, parks and churches?<\/p>\n

For a developing country with many economic challenges it is an impossible task.<\/p>\n

Al-Shabab has previously attacked a university<\/a> and several churches in Kenya.<\/p>\n

The rebel group said they will stop attacking Kenya if Nairobi pulls its troops from Somalia.<\/p>\n

But it is hard to see that happening as it will be seen as a victory for them.<\/p>\n

For now the cat-and-mouse game between Kenyan security forces and al-Shabab continues with no sign it will end anytime soon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is a week since the deadly hotel attack in Nairobi. Life appears to have returned to normal. But beneath the surface, Kenyan leaders have been left with a tough decision on how to proceed. Previously, every time a major attack by the armed group al-Shabab happened on Kenyan soil, the east African country responded…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}