H.E. Mr. Richard Opembe:

I thank the Chairman for inviting me to make a presentation to the honourable members of the committee on the current security situation in Kenya following the terrorist attack at the Garissa University College on 2 April 2015. I further take this opportunity to thank the Irish Government and the people of Ireland for standing with Kenya in condemning the terrorists’ activities and for the messages of sympathy to the victims of the Garissa attack. On behalf of the Government and the people of Kenya, I acknowledge our appreciation of the gesture of support demonstrated by His Excellency, the President of Ireland, Mr. Michael D. Higgins, the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, and other Government officials, all of whom came to sign the book of condolences as a sign of solidarity with the Government and the people of Kenya.

Following the attack, a total of 147 innocent lives were lost and many others with injuries were admitted to various hospitals.

Most of those admitted have since been treated and discharged. The Government of Kenya will meet all the hospital and burial costs for all the victims.

The Government of Kenya, in consultation with college management and other stakeholders, has made the necessary arrangements for the relocation of students to other universities in Kenya. This will ensure that their learning programmes will continue without interruption.

Despite the isolated terrorist attack in Garrisa on 2 April 2015, the security situation in the country is good. The government has put in place necessary measures to ensure adequate security in all learning institutions and other areas that may be targeted by terrorists. The Central Bank of Kenya has also frozen 86 accounts of individuals, organisations and financial institutions suspected to be facilitating terrorism and radicalisation in the country.

The government has also been working on various initiatives aimed at scaling up the level of public alertness and strengthening national security. Some of the initiatives include: the enactment of the Security Laws Amendment Act 2014 that strengthened Kenyan legislation to deal firmly with terrorism and radicalisation; sustained ground, aerial and maritime surveillance along the Kenya-Somalia border; construction of perimeter fence and other complementing surveillance systems along the Kenya-Somalia border - construction of the initial 50 km stretch is underway from border point 1 to border point 29 in Kiunga; continuous collaboration with Muslim leaders to counter terrorism and extremists narratives; enhancement of implementation of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2012 that provides the legal framework to fight terrorism; establishment of the financial reporting centre at the Central Bank of Kenya to analyse financial transactions and investigate the financing of terrorism; increased investment in the security sector, including fast-tracking of police reforms; application of technology in border controls, passenger profiling, and screening procedures of persons entering and leaving the country; establishment of partnership programmes with private establishments, such as hotels, learning institutions and shopping malls, to improve their physical security through awareness programmes and the exchange of threat and vulnerability assessments; enhancement of intelligence gathering and sharing through the community policing initiative Nyumba Kumi, which means ten household clusters; mounting multi-agency security operations under AU initiatives targeting various militia in Somalia; and co-operation and sharing of information with regional countries and other global liaison partners such as the UN, AU, IGAD and EAC.

Despite these counter-terrorism efforts, Kenya is faced with an emergent serious security challenge of radicalisation, which has created an indigenous group of terrorists who are now being used to plan and execute attacks within the country, as was noted in Garissa University on 2 April 2015. The proponents of radicalisation have been able to recruit a considerable number of youths from the coast, north-east and Nairobi, as well as other parts of the country, mainly through exploiting the youths' desire for prosperity, financial inducements and promises of better living.

Kenya has been in the limelight, in particular, on matters of terrorism and violent extremism due to a number of reasons, including the 700 km porous common border it shares with southern Somalia, where the main al-Shabaab bases are located.

Some criminals have also managed to enter Kenya disguised as refugees only to convert the refugee camps as centres for radicalisation and planning of terrorist acts, as well as the indoctrination of Kenyan youths with the violent extremist ideologies through education institutions, mosques, the Internet, mass media and prison. Others have been lured to cross into Somalia with the promise of employment opportunities, only to return having been indoctrinated into violent extremism.

Kenya will not relent in its fight against terrorism. We are currently implementing the national counter-radicalisation strategy which has seven pillars covering media strategy, psychosocial strategy, faith-based strategy, capacity building strategy, political strategy, education strategy and security strategy.

All the national stakeholders have expressed their commitment to support the government's efforts in dealing with terrorism. In this regard, civil society groups, faith-based organisations and development partners have also initiated strategies that complement government programmes on security. To economically empower the youth and citizenry, the government is running programmes under different funding schemes including the Uwezo fund, the youth enterprise fund and women enterprise fund.

Terrorism is an international security challenge that can be effectively dealt with through bilateral and multilateral co-operation. In recognition of this fact, Kenya invites development partners for fruitful co-operation and especially in the thematic areas of: counter-terrorism prevention and intervention; countering violent extremism; police reforms and effectiveness; command and control CCTV; border security management; digitisation of immigration and registration services with digital records and biometrics; investigative, prosecutor and judicial capacity building; security inter-agency co-operation and collaboration; improvised explosive devices, IEDs, awareness, counter measures and disposal; and airport/aviation security.

The other areas of co-operation that Kenya seeks to venture into include: strengthening inter-agency security co-operation; enhancing capacity for financial reporting to monitor mobile money transfers; capacity building programmes for anti-terrorism police, prosecution, immigration and judicial staff; acquisition of body scanners, scan-vans, intruder detection systems, vehicle-screening machines and night-vision equipment for aviation security; and the facilitation of benchmarking on best practice for counter-terrorism measures.

I wish to reiterate Kenya’s commitment to fight against terrorism and further express a willingness to engage in fruitful partnerships aimed at dealing with the security challenges we currently face. We look forward to initiating consultations with Ireland to identify areas of mutual interest for co-operation and these will be communicated to the Government through diplomatic channels.

Again, I sincerely thank the Chairman and other members of the committee for this opportunity to meet with them and for their positive engagement with Kenya.