Kerry Pledges More Aid to Somali Refugees in Kenya

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, greeted victims and the families of victims of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings during a wreath-laying ceremony at the August 7 Memorial Park in Nairobi on Monday. PHOTO: ANDREW HARNIK/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

By Heidi Vogt
Monday, May 4, 2015

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NAIROBI, Kenya — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for Kenyans to be patient with their government’s troop presence in Somalia and pledged additional funding for Somali refugees after a series of attacks inside Kenya’s borders.

The actions underscored the importance of Kenya to the U.S.’s counterterrorism strategy in Africa—a continent in which the U.S. is trying to stamp out multiple Islamist extremist groups with very little direct intervention.

Mr. Kerry met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday, just a little more than a month after a bloody strike by Somalia’s al-Shabaab militant group on a Kenyan university killed nearly 150 people. Following the attack, the Kenyan government intensified crackdowns on ethnic Somalis inside its borders—freezing the accounts of a number of civil-society groups, halting money transfers and threatening to close the Dadaab refugee camp—the world’s largest—in eastern Kenya.

The university attack and a number of assaults in the past two years, including the deadly 2013 siege at a Nairobi shopping mall, have strengthened calls by some Kenyan lawmakers to get troops out of Somalia.

“I do hope that Kenyans will be patient,” Mr. Kerry said. “We need the exit strategy and the exit strategy needs to be a success.”

Mr. Kerry said the U.S. is committing an additional $45 million to the United Nations refugee agency to help some 600,000 refugees in Kenya—the majority of those in the Dadaab camp. The Kenyan government has repeatedly said it wants to close Dadaab, which it says is a recruiting ground for terrorists. The government made it strongest call yet to do so in April, but then backtracked amid international criticism.

Kenya—often seen as a bulwark of stability in a restive East African region—has had troops in Somalia since 2011 and has become a key partner for the U.S. in efforts to disrupt militant cells in East Africa.

But Mr. Kenyatta has also been a difficult ally—he was facing a war-crimes trial at the International Criminal Court until prosecutors dropped the charges in December, citing a lack of evidence. His security forces have also rounded up Somalis in raids that have angered human-rights groups.

Asked if he demanded that Dadaab be kept open, Mr. Kerry said no such demand was necessary because he and Mr. Kenyatta had had a measured discussion of the challenges and the hopes to one day be able to close the camp.

“The president couldn’t have been more forthcoming that this is an enormous challenge for the country,” Mr. Kerry said. “He also made it clear that Kenya has a great tradition of hosting refugees and that the key is to accelerate efforts to have a plan in place.”

A spokesman for Mr. Kenyatta didn’t respond to requests for comment on the talks with Mr. Kerry, although his Twitter account contained a post saying the two leaders had discussed investment, trade, security and terrorism.

Mr. Kerry described his talks with Mr. Kenyatta as productive and including security matters, economic growth and the July visit of President Barack Obama, which would be his first as president.

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