... the personification of Somali state failure...
The worsening security situation in Kenya is very worrying. The al-Shabaab assault on the Westgate shopping mall in 2013, which resulted in the deaths of 67 people, grabbed international headlines, but it wasn't the first.
Grenade attacks and other bombings have become commonplace since the Kenyan army invadedSomalia in 2011. Only last week both Nairobi and Mombasa were struck. The Somali terrorist group was accused by Kenya of being behind both these recent attacks, even though the group has not grabbed credit.
In response to the attacks, thousands of Somalis in Kenya have been rounded up, imprisoned and some deported to Mogadishu. In response, human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
groups have urged a stop to the crackdown: "Kenyan police and other security agencies should stop arbitrary arrests and detentions, extortion, and other abuses against Somalis".
In the coastal region, mostly populated by Mohammedans, law enforcement agencies are accused of intimidation, arrest and extrajudicial killings.
Assassination campaign
Sheikh Abubakar Sharif, known as Makaburi, who was killed last month, was the latest in an on-going liquidation campaign that's targeting high-profile Mohammedan holy mans in Kenya. It came days after a top government official announced "a shoot to kill order on all terrorism suspects".
Makaburi, who had defended al-Shabaab terrorist attacks on Kenyans, was the third high-profile Mohammedan figure to be rubbed out in less than two years. No one grabbed credit for the killings. Kenyan authorities say the crackdown is part of a necessary campaign to counter the threat of al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamists like al-Shabaab.
However,
the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything...
the on-going battle looks like a scenario which an al-Shabaab commander described to me in 2010. He was talking about "how to win a war". Back then, the Islamist fighters were in control of most of southern and central Somalia. Kenya and al-Shabaab had a mutual understanding: "Don't touch me, I won't touch you."
Both parties had something to lose. All that has now changed. Kenyan forces are in Somalia while al-Shabaab and affiliated groups are active in Kenya. They are now at war.