Https://www.facebook.com/horneyenews Kenya does not discuss its Somalia policy loudly. It does not need to. The relationships have been built quietly, over years, through military deployments, intelligence cooperation, business investments, and the careful cultivation of political allies in Kismaayo, Baidoa, and the corridors of the Villa Somalia presidential palace in Mogadishu. Nairobi’s interest in Somalia is not purely altruistic. A stable Somalia means a manageable border. It means reduced flows of refugees into the sprawling Dadaab camp complex, which at its peak housed over half a million people. It means reduced space for al-Shabaab to plan attacks on Kenyan soil — attacks that have killed hundreds of Kenyan civilians and damaged the country’s vital tourism industry. But stability is not Kenya’s only interest. Economic penetration is the other half of the equation. Kenyan banks are establishing footholds in Mogadishu’s recovering financial sector. Kenyan construction companies are bidding on infrastructure contracts. Kenya Airways has resumed flights to the Somali capital. The tension in the relationship surfaces around Jubaland, the southwestern Somali regional state that Kenya has cultivated as a buffer zone and sphere of influence. Mogadishu views this cultivation as interference in sovereign affairs. Nairobi views it as legitimate security cooperation. Between those two interpretations lies a dispute that no diplomatic communiqué has yet resolved. Post navigation Black Gold Beneath the Sand: Somalia’s Oil Future Hangs in the Balance
