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{
    "id": 506087,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/506087/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 176,
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    "content": "have our own usual challenges in which thousands of Kenyans are losing their lives every year due to various crimes reported in this country. Those are on the increase. However, in the last three years the issue of terrorism has dominated news in this country. Terrorism has also claimed the lives of many Kenyans. We have reached a situation where Kenyans are living in fear and cannot travel freely. They cannot even go to supermarkets, offices and buildings without being inspected or scanned. We are literally living in a country where Kenyans are asking other Kenyans to leave some counties because of fear due to insecurity. We are literally telling each other that Kenyans from this part of the country should not go to that part of the country because of insecurity. As I speak, hundreds of public servants are leaving Mandera. Literally, this is an exodus due to fear and nothing else. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this insecurity is largely related to terrorism which is a global problem. However, the situation for this country changed significantly in October, 2011 when the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) moved to Somalia. The then Minister for Foreign Affairs, who is now the Senate Minority Leader, said very clearly that they were moving the KDF to Somalia on the request of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and that the measure of success of the KDF in Somalia would be the crippling of Al Shabaab. Following many incidents of explosions across this country from Garissa, Mandera, Mombasa, Nairobi and other places where Kenyans have lost their lives, the claim cited by Al Shabaab has been the presence of the KDF in Somalia. In the last three years, instead of incidences of terrorist attacks going down, it has been on the increase. When these forces went into Somalia, we were told that they would be building a buffer zone between the border of Kenya and Somalia so that terrorists do not enter into the country. What has happened is a situation where our lives have been turned upside down. We have had many of attacks in Nairobi, Mombasa and in most parts of this country. Even while boarding matatus, Kenyans have been required to produce identity cards and they are also scanned. That is the situation we are in today. Today this country has been listed as the 12th most terrorist prone in the world. We are in the league of Afghanistan and Somalia. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we must ask ourselves why this is happening. Why is the security situation deteriorating? Why are the levels of terrorist attacks in this country increasing? These are questions that Members of this House need to debate and ask. When a strategy does not work, you have to change it. What we see today is a situation where we have left the Government to pursue a particular strategy and we need to ask ourselves whether those strategies are working. For example, is the presence of the KDF as a strategy to fight Al Shabaab working? There are about 500 to 600 hundred kilometres between Wajir to Mandera on the border with Kenya that are not secure. That should have provided a buffer zone, but our KDF are not there. They are right in the sea; in Kismayu. We need to ask ourselves whether our presence in that country has helped reduce the incidences. Whether the strategies we are seeing in coast and North Eastern by the Government are helping to reduce these incidences. The reality is that the situation is getting worse. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}