- Interior Principal Secretary Dr Raymond Omollo said Tuesday the government has now reached out to Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Somalia with the intent of stepping up the joint efforts against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons among border and nomadic communities.
- “Due to their easy availability and low cost, these are the weapons of choice for terrorists, insurgents, and criminal gangs in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa,” he said.
Kenya is now engaging her neighbours to rein in the cross-border smuggling of illegal firearms that have been fuelling violent conflicts and crimes in the region.
Interior Principal Secretary Dr Raymond Omollo said Tuesday the government has now reached out to Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Somalia with the intent of stepping up the joint efforts against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons among border and nomadic communities.
“Due to their easy availability and low cost, these are the weapons of choice for terrorists, insurgents, and criminal gangs in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa,” he said.
Omollo said Kenya’s prime focus is to pare down the availability of these weapons, and ultimately end years of inter-communal conflicts, banditry and livestock rustling.
The resultant atrocities of the foregoing trends, according to Dr Omollo, partly constitute the “high cost” the country has paid for illegal firearms, particularly in the North Rift, northern frontier counties, and parts of the Eastern region.
“Unsurprisingly, these three regions cumulatively account for approximately 30 per cent of all the small arms and light weapons in the country, a trend that has hindered progress towards social and economic development.”
Of great concern for Kenya is how criminals and unscrupulous profit-seekers continue to devise new strategies to covertly traffic and smuggle weapons into the country.
In response, Dr Omollo relayed the government’s commitment to establishing a robust border control system, which will feature next-level surveillance technology.
“Those of us in the security sector can attest to the complexity of these criminals’ methods and the extension of their networks,” the PS noted.
“This move will help us conduct surveillance and respond to illegal crossing and movement of proscribed goods, including dangerous weapons.”
The PS was speaking in Nairobi during the opening ceremony of a three-day workshop organized by the Regional Centre on Small Arms and Light Weapons (RECSA), as the Centre seeks to strengthen cross-border arms control cooperation.
The workshop brought together various local, regional and international law enforcement agencies, and the discourse will revolve around enhancing the SALW marking, record-keeping and tracing regime.
On his part, Lt. Gen. Badreldin Elamin Abdelgadir, RECSA Executive Secretary, emphasized the importance of enhancing cross-border capacity to counter illicit trafficking of weapons which will directly complement national, regional and global instruments, key among them the Nairobi Protocol on the Prevention, Control and Reduction of SALW in the Great Lakes Region, Horn of Africa and Bordering States.
“The development and implementation of border security and management strategies; efforts to detect and seize parts and components of weapons and ammunition; enhanced stockpile management; and the fight against the illicit manufacture of weapons are effective tools to disrupt the supply of illicit small arms and light weapons to unintended end users,” noted Gen. Abdelgadir.
During the training, the representatives will also canvass better ways to strengthen border security and reinforce stakeholder understanding of field identification and tracking of the weapons, with the ultimate objective of countering diversion into the wrong hands.
The Kenya National Focal Point (KNFP) described diversion as the “loss, theft, leakage and proliferation” of weapons, and prescribes efficient security of arms and ammunition stockpiles.
Through its representative, the agency stated:
“The systematic control of stockpiles is in keeping with a philosophy of ‘due care’ and therefore States should take a proactive, rather than reactive, stance in ensuring that arms are accounted for and secured to the highest standards.”
According to the Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organization/Counter-Terrorism Centre of Excellence (EAPCCO-CTCoE), which is also among the agencies represented in the workshop, the most notorious weapons used by terrorists, bandits and armed gangsters include the Kalashnikov rifle (AK47), colt M16, H&K G3 rifle, PKM machinegun and RPG7.
“All these weapons have serial numbers and can be easily traced to manufacturers if governments were to take this menace seriously,” stated the Deputy Director, Gideon Kibunjah.
Interpol, through its representative, vouched for the effectiveness of its I-24/7 global police communications system, which enables police around the world to share alerts, data and intelligence on various security issues.
The agency further undertook to remain a committed partner in the quest to improve cooperation on international cases and efforts to tackle transnational organized crimes.
Among agencies involved in the training include: Germany’s Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC), the African Union Commission (AUC), the Regional Economic Communities, and the International Conference on the Great Lakes (ICGLR) among others.