The Kenyan government has adopted an aggressive approach to combating extremism at home and abroad. As terrorist forces have grown stronger, the central government in Nairobi has invested more resources in disrupting terrorist funding and thwarting their operations. As a result, the number of attacks has fallen from 69 in 2020 to 51 in 2021. The authorities are considering an overhaul of the security system to improve results.
A multi-agency security team, including soldiers from the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF), attacked an Al Shabaab camp in Ijara, Garissa County, on Wednesday November 22, 2023, thwarting an imminent terrorist attack. Since 2021, Kenya has been a target of terrorist attacks, mainly along the border with Somalia. Improvised explosive devices and ambushes targeting Kenyan security forces and important infrastructure are the main means of attack.
Our primary aim is to secure the transformation of this nation by instituting a professional, efficient, effective security sector.
William Ruto, President of the Republic –Kenya
As a member of the Global Coalition Against Daech, Kenya plays a leading role in regional counter-terrorism cooperation. It is in this capacity that the Kenyan government, relying on the Terrorism Prevention Act amended in 2014 to investigate and prosecute acts of terrorism has set up a task force in 2021 whose main task is to identify loopholes in the national security system to strengthen counter-terrorism measures. As a result, according to a report by the Center for Human Rights and Policy Studies, terrorist attacks have dropped from 69 in 2020 to 51 reported incidents in 2021.
The task force has diagnosed 4 primary problems in our services that have pampered effective and efficient service delivery rendering them resistant to growth and transformation. The problems are underfunding, deficient leadership, structural and organisational weaknesses and most critically of all, corruption.
William Ruto, President of the Republic –Kenya
In recent years, Somalia-based al-Shabaab has carried out two large-scale attacks in Kenya. The September 2013 siege of Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, which left 67 people dead, and the April 2015 attack on Garissa University in the country’s northeast.
