U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry arrived in Kenya on Sunday to offer help in countering Somali al Shabaab militants who have staged deadly attacks there and elsewhere in East Africa. Reuters was there:
Kerry will also address Kenya’s human rights in meetings with President Uhuru Kenyatta and other government officials as well as discussing the troubled peace process in South Sudan and violence in Burundi, a U.S. official said.
Kerry’s visit followed the killing of 148 people by al Shabaab militants in an attack on the university at Garissa, nothern Kenya, on April 2. “We will be looking at additional ways that we may be able to support Kenyan efforts to fight al Shabaab,” the official said, without giving details.
Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said last month that Nairobi wanted intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support from Western allies. Washington is particularly worried about the security situation in Kenya’s neighbour Somalia, where a fragile government backed by Western powers and African peacekeepers is struggling to contain al Shabab, which is allied to al Qaeda.
