By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Published Jan 4, 2012 8:32 PM

The Wikileaks website released cables showing that plans for the Kenyan military invasion of southern Somalia had been mapped out for nearly two years and refuting claims that the intervention was done without Washington’s knowledge. They showed that high-level meetings had taken place in early 2010 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which laid the ground work for renewed attempts to eliminate the Al-Shabaab Islamic resistance movement that controls large sections of the Horn of Africa nation.

This secret plan, dubbed “Jubaland Initiative,” outlined the creation of an artificial state in southern Somalia in an effort to choke off Al-Shabaab from the border areas near Kenya. At the meeting in Ethiopia in January 2010, the Kenyan delegation led by Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang’ula appealed for U.S. support for the operation.

Other Kenyan officials in the delegation included Chief of General Staff Jeremiah Kianga, Defense Minister Yusuf Haji and Director of National Security Intelligence Services Maj.-Gen. Michael Gichang’i. This meeting in Addis Ababa was just one in a series of discussions designed to enlist U.S. support for the current military operations.

Operation Linda Nchi, the Kenyan invasion of southern Somalia, began on Oct. 16 and involved over 2,000 Kenyan troops. The war has become bogged down due to the lack of logistical coordination, the inclement weather and the formidable resistance to the intervention by Al-Shabaab and its supporters inside the country.

A Dec. 17 article in the Kenya Daily Nation points out, “The cables also say the military action took years of planning and was not a spontaneous reaction to abductions conducted by the Islamist group on Kenyan soil as repeatedly stated by government officials. The abductions seemed to provide Kenya with a convenient excuse to launch the plan, which, officials argued, was necessary to ensure protection against threats posed by an unstable neighbor.”

Cables released by Wikileaks reveals that Kenyan Foreign Minister Wetang’ula had informed U.S. Undersecretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson of developments being made in preparation for the invasion of Somalia. The plan was to invade Somalia, drive away Al-Shabaab units from the border and then seize the port at Kismayo.

The Kenyan government justified the invasion based on false allegations that Al-Shabaab planned to stockpile weapons near the border with Kenya and send its fighters into the neighboring country. One U.S. diplomatic cable indicated that Kenyan Director of Military Intelligence Brig. Philip Kameru told visiting U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Counterterrorism Daniel Benjamin that Al-Shabaab had plans to begin incursions inside Kenyan territory.

The U.S. diplomatic cable stated, “[Kameru] added that the Director of Military Intelligence expects Al-Shabaab to begin cross-border incursions into Kenya and he claimed to have received reports indicating Al-Shabaab has plans to use improvised explosive devices and landmines against security personnel and civilian traffic inside Kenya.” (Daily Nation, Dec. 17)

Other false claims reported to the U.S. ambassador involved unsubstantiated reports that Al-Shabaab was circulating currency obtained through piracy and purchasing real estate inside Kenya. Officials from Kenya also told Washington that Al-Shabaab was radicalizing youth inside the East African country.

Al-Shabaab has denied participation in hijacking ships in the Gulf of Aden and in kidnappings taking place in Kenya. The Islamist organization is now fighting to drive outside forces from Somalia

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