Kenyan troops stationed in the port city of kismaayo are involved in the destruction of the environment of Somalia by covertly creating export of the illicit internationally banned Somali charcoal and are also involved in sugar smuggling.
Kenyan troops make $13 million a year from taxing the illegal sugar and charcoal shipments which are smuggled to Kenya, Journalists for Justice said in a report. It didn’t say if local authorities get a share of this illegal trade. Kenyan troops are in somalia under Somalia government mandate and invitation to support the somali army with its fight against international sponsored terrorist groups that have also threatened kenya’s security.
Kenyan Defense Minister Raychelle Omamo denied the allegations, saying that they are meant to create hostility for Kenyan troops in Somalia. She said the report is a smear campaign.
According to the report, members of the Kenya military are also illegally exporting charcoal from Somalia.
Sugar and charcoal smuggling is also financing activities of anti government rebel groups that the Kenya military went to help Somalia to fight. According to the report, insurgents make $12.2 million a year from levying taxes on sugar trucks.
“This is a case where the security of the whole country is sacrificed for a few people to gain,” said journalist Kwamachetsi Makhoha, one of the authors of the report.
Kenyan leaders say the country’s troops are in Somalia to bolster the weak U.N.-backed Somali government against al-Shabab’s insurgency, and are with the African Union military mission.
Journalists for Justice said they interviewed at least 50 people with insider knowledge.
The report says sources from within the military, parliament and foreign embassies all described a situation in which a high-ranking military official heads a smuggling network which includes commanders of Kenyan troops, key figures in the ministries of defense, immigration and state house. It said the network enjoys the protection and tacit cooperation of leaders at the highest echelons of the executive and parliament.
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