Should Kenya be isolated because of a single alleged terrorist sighting? Gamal Nkrumah investigates The alleged return to Kenya of alleged Al- Qa'eda activist Fazul Abdullah Mohamed has set the cat among the pigeons. Reports on his whereabouts have been contradictory, naming Kenya's war-torn neighbour Somalia and the predominantly Muslim KenyanIndian Ocean port of Malindi as possible hideouts. Other reports, specifically by Global Witness, say he was last seen at the other end of the African continent in the conflict-ridden West African country of Liberia. Mohamed, a citizen of the overwhelmingly Muslim Indian Ocean island-nation of Comoros, is suspected of being the main African hand of Al-Qa'eda and Osama Bin Laden's chief emissary in Africa. Mohamed, a diminutive, slight and soft-spoken computer whiz, studied in Saudi Arabia and is fluent in key African languages such as Kiswahili -- East Africa's lingua franca -- and Arabic. Based on incriminating evidence found on the hard drive of his computer in Kenya, Mohamed was indicted in New York and accused by the FBI of masterminding the bombing in 1998 of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which resulted in the deaths of more than 200 people. The British government promptly banned all commercial flights to Kenya and issued travel advice to British subjects warning them not to journey to that country. The United States authorities followed suit, with Germany also warning its citizens against travelling to Kenya and Tanzania. On Monday, Israel's national airline El-Al suspended its weekly flight to the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Kenyan officials have expressed outrage at the imposition of the travel ban. "People shouldn't be kept unawares. We don't want to keep the information for ourselves. Kenya is a democratic country and we value transparency. People must know the truth," Kenya's ambassador to Egypt told Al-Ahram Weekly. Ambassador Mahmoud said that security checks in Kenya are very tight. He added that the Kenyan authorities are sharing information with international intelligence networks -- British, US and INTERPOL included. "Our security forces are alert," Mahmoud assured. "We want other countries to share information with us and not ban travel to Kenya," he said. Other Kenyan officials issued strongly worded statements. A Kenyan government official described the British decision as a "panic measure" and warned of dire consequences. "We believe they are acting out of panic for no reason at all," Dave Mwangi, Kenya's national security chief, told the BBC. "We were only cautioning Kenyans and those foreigners who live in Kenya that our security forces are alert," Mwangi added. His overt concern for the safety of foreign residents obviously backfired. "We are very well equipped to detect any trouble. We are on top of things," he stressed. The furore ensued when Kenyan Security Minister Chris Murungaru disclosed last Wednesday that the country was on high security alert because Mohamed had been sighted. All hell was let loose. The Kenyan currency, the shilling, depreciated sharply and many tourists stayed away. The Kenyan media blamed the Kenyan government for going public. In response, even more Western countries are following the US and British examples and have advised their nationals against non- essential travel to Kenya. While Britain banned all British commercial flights to Kenya, Kenya Airways, a strategic partner of the Dutch national carrier KLM, still flies regularly to and from Kenya and Britain. Kenya is host to more than 100,000 British tourists a year and tourism is the mainstay of the Kenyan economy. Other major airlines serving Kenya, such as South African Airlines, the Emirates and Air India, continue to fly regularly to Nairobi. EgyptAir's twice-weekly flight to Nairobi also remains unaffected. Kenyans, however, fear that the disruption of flights to their country might prove to be the ruin of the Kenyan economy. The numbers of tourists visiting Kenya fell sharply following the bombing of the US Embassy in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and again after the attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in the KenyanIndian Ocean port of Mombassa and an attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in November 2002. Kenya's cabinet met on Friday to discuss the economic and security crisis which ensued after the surprise announcement of the British government's decision to ban all commercial flights to Kenya. The Kenyan capital Nairobi is the hub of East Africa, and British Airways provided fights to the Kenyan capital on a daily basis. The Kenyan authorities are angry that the British government made the decision unilaterally "without consulting us first", as Mwangi put it. As far as the Kenyans are concerned, this action is all the more painful for coming from old friends. Kenya has been one of the staunchest pro-Western countries in the region for decades. And while under former Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi, relations with Kenya's Western allies and benefactors temporarily teetered on the brink because of Western criticism of Moi's heavy-handed style of government, the country successfully held presidential and parliamentary elections last December in which Moi and his party, the Kenyan African Union -- which ruled the country since independence from Britain in 1964 -- were swept out of power. Seven other East African countries have been blacklisted by the British and US authorities, namely Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. East African countries such as Ethiopia are less affected by the travel ban since they are not as dependent on tourism as Kenya. "Addis Ababa is as peaceful as ever, and numerous diplomatic meetings are taking place as scheduled," Ethiopia's Ambassador to Egypt Girma Amare told the Weekly. The Ethiopian ambassador added that regular surveillance operations in border areas with Somalia, sometimes with US assistance, are now the norm. He explained that Al-Itihad Al-Islami (Islamic Unity), disbanded after being routed in 1996-97 by Ethiopian forces, constituted the main terrorist link with Al-Qa'eda. Air links with Addis Ababa and other East African airports such as Entebbe, Uganda, have not been seriously affected. Many observers wonder whether the hue and cry over the sighting of Mohamed in East Africa makes any sense. "Although one must not play with people's lives, the current scare game is preposterous, irresponsible and extremely damaging to the economy of Kenya and its neighbours," Ahmed Rajab, editor of the London-based Africa Analysis told the Weekly. "I've no doubt that Mohamed has strong connections to Al-Qa'eda," said Rajab, who has written extensively about Mohamed and has decried the hullabaloo surrounding his sudden resurfacing in Kenya. "Who saw him? Why didn't they arrest him on the spot? All we hear are vague statements about his possible whereabouts," Rajab said. "I have never met him in person, but I have met and interviewed many people who knew him well," Rajab said. "What concerns me is that this is a case of much ado about nothing." "Intelligence agencies have a lot of information about Mohamed and his ilk. Kenya has an anti-terrorist unit that is very capable. The Kenyan authorities are working closely with FBI agents on the ground and the US has given Kenya's anti-terrorism police unit plenty of funds to beef up security," Rajab added.
