 A Somali soldier sits near the Somali police academy south of the Mogadishu December 20, 2008. Kenya will host officers who have been in the force for some time. Photo/FILE |
Thursday 13 January 2011
The officers, five of them women, will be based at the Manyani Kenya Wildlife Service Field Training School under the tutelage of the African Union Mission in Somalia.
They will upgrade their skills in police law, investigations and community policing. “Somali police lack skills in many areas. This situation has been weakened by civil war,” training coordinator Steven Kasiima said.
The programme comes in the wake of a recent UN call for the international community to stop meddling in Somalia’s internal affairs.
The UN said controlling the country from outside compromised its insecurity. The Somali Transitional Federal Government, established in 2005, is preoccupied with fighting Al-Shabaab militants.
Italian ambassador to Somalia, Mr Stefano Dejak, said that Somalis “have to exercise the rebirth of their security forces because this will help the country and Africa to support itself without external interference.”
The special representative of the African Union Commission for Somalia, Mr Boucar Diarra, pledged to train and restructure the police in Somali.
“Law and order will not be kept by the international community, it will be kept by the Somali police,” he said.
Uganda has offered reconstruction courses to 3,000 Somali military officers while Djibouti trains recruits. Kenya will host officers who have been in the force for some time.
Source: Daily Nation