Nipate
Forum => Kenya Discussion => Topic started by: Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants on July 15, 2016, 01:23:17 AM
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of poor working conditions. I have mentioned this elsewhere before. These guys are fighting their LOOTenants and Al-Shabab. The military budget continues to baloon, but they have nothing to show for it. AMISOM is fully funded as far as I can tell, and they are getting 20 bob(40 bob for married ones) a day for hardship allowance. 6 to 12 USD a month.
This is the stuff that guy in El Adde(I can never forget his face) was complaining about, even as slowly perished from his wounds. When you are too corrupt, you don't go to war.
Soldiers in elite units of the Kenyan military battling Al-Shabaab have complained about poor pay and lack of compensation for injuries at war.
Putting their careers on the line to air their grievances, the soldiers challenge the “Amisom terms and conditions” and question what they see as bad leadership and corruption among top commanders.
The soldiers, some deployed almost permanently to keep Al-Shabaab out of Kenya, are paid only Sh20 as hardship allowance a day and Sh40 for married ones.
With their hands tied by military discipline, some of the soldiers have been contemplating leaving the military altogether — despite years of service and hard training — so that they can fight the problems in the service from outside.
Contacted for a comment on issues raised by the soldier, military authorities asked for more time to study the questions and promised to answer them.
The Daily Nation will publish their response once it is ready.
Soldiers who have spoken to the Daily Nation sounded surprisingly disillusioned by what they saw as command failure and “mission confusion” in Somalia.
“Kenyan soldiers are not cowards. They are well-trained and capable but they are let down by poor strategy,” said one from the Special Operations Regiment who said he has been in almost constant deployment against Al-Shabaab since Kenya went into Somalia in 2010.
Some of the soldiers said that although they were winning the shooting battles, they were losing the war to Al-Shabaab because there is no clear strategy.
The soldiers are particularly bitter about the fact that no effort is being made to reconstruct communities in the territory they fought so hard to liberate so as to lock out Al-Shabaab and prevent radicalisation.
They are also aghast at some of the decisions being taken, such as the retreat from Badade to Kolbyo, given how hard they had battled to take the area. “We are wasting time. Our soldiers are dying for nothing,” he said.
KDF is understood to have pulled back after threats from Al-Shabaab, shortly after the tragedy in El-Adde where a base was overrun by Al-Shabaab and Kenyan troops killed.
The soldiers appear to regard what they say is blatant corruption in some sections of the top echelons of the military with bitter resignation.
One soldier said every time they board their helicopter to respond to an Al-Shabaab alert they are thinking: “We are helping people build skyscrapers in Nairobi.”
INCREASED GRAFT
According to the troops, graft in the forces is blatant. “Taxpayers pay for cooking gas for us but we use firewood,” the soldier said. “Everyone is cashing in.”
A worrying example is Kenya’s ally in the war, Ahmed Madobe, whom the soldiers said has recently built himself a palace but has done so little to improve the lives of ordinary Somalis.
As a result, young people are choosing to join Al-Shabaab rather than his militia.
“Al-Shabaab is giving guns to children as young as 10 and 12. These are the most dangerous because what do you do with them?” he asked, referring to the fact that they can’t engage children, even if they are armed.
The soldiers are equally dismayed by neglect of border communities by both county and national governments, especially between Kiunga and Mpeketoni in Lamu, where they say children are not going to school mainly because there are no teachers.
“There is no education. In one school, which used to have 300 children, now there are 100 being taught by a single teacher from the community,” he said.
Soldiers are particularly frustrated because their seniors are unable to take their complaints up the chain of command. If a commanding officer complains about the poor treatment of his men, “a plane comes the following day and he is recalled to HQ to deal with paperwork”.
The Kenyan public and world outside has no idea that the country’s special forces in Somalia and Boni Forest in Lamu have been doing a marvellous job containing the extremists.
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Soldiers-seek-better-terms-for-troops-in-war-against-Shabaab/-/1056/3295418/-/146us1yz/-/index.html (http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Soldiers-seek-better-terms-for-troops-in-war-against-Shabaab/-/1056/3295418/-/146us1yz/-/index.html)
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of poor working conditions. I have mentioned this elsewhere before. These guys are fighting their LOOTenants and Al-Shabab. The military budget continues to baloon, but they have nothing to show for it. AMISOM is fully funded as far as I can tell, and they are getting 20 bob(40 bob for married ones) a day for hardship allowance. 6 to 12 USD a month.
That's quite a chunk of change ... better not spend it all in one place! For more, consider charcoal and sugar ...
The figures in this Daily-Nation report appear accurate (at least as far as intentions go):
The European Union covers the full cost of payments to Amisom soldiers through contributions it makes to the AU. The EU’s total yearly payments amount to about $200 million.
Amisom soldiers receive a monthly allowance of $828 after their respective governments deduct a $200 administrative cost per soldier.
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/-/1056/3053596/-/qk83vtz/-/index.html
(The word "allowance" is interesting, as it suggests something on top of a salary; such a view would find support in some EU documentation on the matter.)
At the time this article came out, the EU stated that it would reduce funding because of "conflicting priorities". Then it stated that the reason was that the AU had last year committed itself to making a contribution to the tab and then promptly forgotten about it. Which is true, and, indeed, the AU was very busy railing against neo-colonial, imperialism ...
The real story came out in May/June when the EU indicated that what had really pissed them off were "accounting irregularities". And would someone please explain, or no more money. I don't know about the EU diplomats in East Africa, but I know that where my compatriots are involved, "accounting irregularities" are part of the cost of doing business. Put them under "contingencies", or something, in the budget.
"These guys are fighting ...": I don't know about that. "These guys" are known to be very fierce when it comes to dealing with civilians---Mt. Elgon, Wagalla, etc.---but I would not directly extend that to fighting. We have little information on such. Take, as an example, the El-Ade disaster earlier this year. At the time, plenty in the Kenyan media, plenty of promises from the government .... and then? What happened, how many Kenyans died, ... ?
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I see them as cannon fodder. Whether they are fighting or not is secondary to the fact that when they die, they will be promptly replaced. AMISOM is a gold mine for a select few people in GoK. Kenya will leave Somalia over their dead bodies.
The worry when soldiers who have seen combat begin to openly complain. The temptation to set up redemption councils goes up. They are used to getting their way.
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This is extremely dangerous. This is no laughing matter. This is the stuff that has seen many countries go to the dogs. This must be addressed urgently and must not become a political duel between CORD and Jubilee. Unpaid soldiers; Disgruntled soldiers; Junior Soldiers unhappy with commanding officers; Soldiers sent to fight without equipment.... are dangerous. They overthrow governments like a joke!
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This is extremely dangerous. This is no laughing matter. This is the stuff that has seen many countries go to the dogs. This must be addressed urgently and must not become a political duel between CORD and Jubilee. Unpaid soldiers; Disgruntled soldiers; Junior Soldiers unhappy with commanding officers; Soldiers sent to fight without equipment.... are dangerous. They overthrow governments like a joke!
I wouldn't worry too much about that in a place like Kenya.
First, and perhaps most important, they are "way over there". (I doubt that anyone, except relatives and the like, even thinks about them unless there is some disaster and it is reported, for a few minutes, in the media.) They are not going to overthrow anyone from "way over there".
Second, Kenya is a country of "eaters". Suppose those guys over there mutiny and someone says to the troops back home, or even some of the troops over there, "You will get a two-month bonus payment, half now, if you go beat the crap out of the mutineers". Are you sure there won't be many takers? (These are the "disciplined forces" that have few qualms when it comes to committing atrocities on civilians.) Would these "small" guys be complaining if they were getting their cut from the sugar and charcoal and regularly enjoying some big-butt Somalian women in the towns?
As I see it, the real problem is the virulent corruption that has pretty much destroyed the moral fibre of the country. As long as we cheerfully agree to being a country of thieves and scoundrels, why should we expect the military to be immune? These complaints are just a small bump in the road of charcoal, sugar, and "accounting irregularities". They will soon be forgotten, but we should expect to have a few every so often. So, as His Excellency M. Kibaki would have said in such circumstances: kazi iendelee.
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Nkaissery has taken all the cash and left our soldiers moneyless and in the bush.