El Adde Incident

We are a nation at war and to complicate matters, we are at war, not with another hostile nation but with a militant group, a rag-tag guerilla outfit fighting its own government either for inclusion in governance or for total control with the intention of creating a Caliphate regime-the real, specific aim of their struggle has not been clearly articulated. They also claim to be fighting all enemies of Islam.

Be that as it may, our soldiers are an occupation force in Somalia and without delving into the 'right' or 'wrong' of this situation, they are combatants in enemy territory and their core business of the day is attacking and being attacked. They are not on a holiday camp and casualties, with all due respect to the victims (and my deepest condolences to the bereaved families) are an inevitability of war. These casualties are expected from both sides and ought not surprise anyone.

It is in this light that I find all the hullabaloo about the Kenyan soldiers killed and injured in Somalia, recently,  the clamor from politicians calling for commission of inquiry, for immediate government disclosure as to what went wrong, why the deaths happened-hypocritical and hoodwinking the masses as to the real issues. It is my opinion that if any probe is warranted, this should be a military one to examine the failure(s) or otherwise of their strategy; to discipline or award personnel both responsible for the omissions or commissions of error and the gallant heroes living or post humous, this incident should be an appendage to the KDF's war manual

For now, for the rest of us, ours is only to debate whether we really need an occupation force in Somalia-autonomous or under the umbrella of AMISOM or some other multi-nation force or we pull out our forces altogether and leave the duty of nation making to others.
When a military or law enforcement installation or any civilian institution, in Kenya, is attacked by either criminals or combatants from outside Kenya, that to me is the prompt, the clarion call that should get us clamouring even for the resignation of government. This to me is the uttermost show of ineptitude at securing the state by a government-the core business of any government.