Africa-Press – Kenya. Peace and stability go hand in hand. The latter is founded on the former. Growth and development thrive when the two reign.
Kenya has been a regional powerhouse in the Horn of Africa and a strategic gateway into eastern and central Africa. Kenya has been hailed as a haven of peace, and the resulting stability has made the Republic an economic and social powerhouse in the region.
It makes sense, therefore, that Kenya has to take a leadership role in peace initiatives that are meant to restore and enforce peace in the region.
Eleven years ago, Kenya sent troops to Somalia to crush the organisational structure and infrastructure of the al Shabaab with an aim to eliminate the ability of the terror gang to attack Kenya. Al Shabaab had carried out a series of kidnappings along the Kenyan Coast, affecting the Kenyan port business that serves both the East and Central landlocked African countries.
This on top of the horrendous terror attacks the terrorists had meted on Kenyans. Besides securing the lives of Kenyans, sailors and other residents, Somalis and East Africans in general, the cessation of disruption of port activities led to booming business for the region. The fading confidence of business investors was also restored.
The recent approval by the National Assembly to deploy 904 soldiers of our gallant Kenya Defence Forces to the DRC is laudable. Kenya’s stature as a country of lasting peace, as the economic leader of the region was recognised when the country was elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2021, serving the presidency of the council in the month of October 2021. This 2021-22 membership of the UNSC is the third term that the republic is serving. The other two terms being in 1973-74 and 1997-98.
Our robust foreign policy, our strategic geographical position as the gateway into Africa from the East are some of the reasons why world powers deem Kenya a strategic partner in Africa. It is, therefore, the responsibility of Kenya to take a leadership role in restoring and enforcing peace processes in the region and the continent.
The Africa Continental Free Trade Area deal is the largest free trade area agreement since the World Trade Organization. This deal aims to increase intra-Africa trade from 14.4 per cent to 50 per cent by 2023. This will unlock the trade and growth potential of the continent by tapping the 1.3 billion people population of the continent as a ready market for Africa’s goods.
For this to be achieved, the continent needs to have lasting peace. DRC is the richest country in Africa in terms of minerals. However, in terms of per capita income, it is among the five poorest countries in the world. This clearly shows how damaging war can be to the social and economic welfare of a people.
According to UN estimates for 2022, the population of the DRC is between 99 million and 100 million people. This provides a huge market for goods and Kenyan businesspeople and firms have not been left behind in trying to tap this market. It is, therefore, in the best interest of Kenya to seek to restore peace in the DRC because it will provide a stable market for our exports.
Over five million people have been displaced from their homes and are now refugees in neighboring countries of Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya. Refugee camps are not very pleasant places to live. It erodes human dignity for people to be displaced from their homes, lose lives and property because of war.
War crimes are inclusive of sexual abuse, killing and maiming of people. The refugee situation presents a resource challenge to host country and planning becomes a challenge. All these impede social and economic development efforts. The best way around this is to confront war situations boldly in the fashion that Kenya and her partners are doing in Somalia and now DRC. A cause to preserve human life and dignity is a noble cause.
It is understandable if Kenyans will be feeling skeptical about the prospective success of the KDF mission in DRC. Given the prolonged battle between KDF as part of Amisom against al Shabaab in Somalia, Kenyans may be wondering whether we are getting into a decades-long deployment of our brothers and sisters to the war-torn country.
The difference is that while Amisom, now renamed Atmis, aims to crush al Shabaab, the regional force that Kenyan troops are reinforcing in DRC are meant to enforce terms of peace and allow peace talks to be concluded successfully with the hopes of finding lasting peace in the country.
With peace talks ongoing, being led by among others former President Uhuru Kenyatta, our forces are being sent into a situation we are well aware of. It is a worthy cause, let all Kenyans support the efforts and support our soldiers.
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