Uhuru Rejects Alleged Plans by US Military to Launch Drone Attacks Inside Kenya

President Kenyatta has refuted reports that the US military is seeking to launch drone strikes inside Kenya.

Speaking during an interview with France 24, Kenyatta said he is unaware of the alleged plan by the US military to seek authorization to carry out armed drone attacks in some parts of the country, adding that he would reject the proposal should it be presented to him for approval.

“There is no such situation, the authorization which has happened in the past of drone strikes on terrorist bases has been in Somalia but we are not at the level of having terrorist incursions,” said Kenyatta.

“The US has not even requested authority to launch drone strikes within the Kenyan territory.” 

Although he acknowledged that the Somalia-based Islamist group, al-Shabaab still poses a threat to Kenya, the danger has diminished.

He added that Kenya is yet to experience a major terror attack since the DusitD2 attack in Westlands, Nairobi in January 2019, which led to the death of 21 people.

The New York Times last month reported that the US military Africa Command (Africom) was seeking approval to conduct armed drone attacks in Kenya as part of its efforts in the fight against al-Shabaab.

The publication added that the US military had come up with draft rules to guide drone strikes in Kenya which need to be approved by the US Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and then President Trump.

The push for authorization to use armed drone strikes, it said, was informed by the January 5th, 2020 al-Shabaab attack on Camp Simba, a military base in Manda Bay, Lamu County which hosts both US and Kenyan troops.

Two US military contractors and a soldier were killed in the attack while property worth millions of dollars was destroyed.

US officials told the paper that Africom requested permission to conduct a drone strike while the attackers were still on Kenya territory but the insurgents had already retreated to Somalia.

This is when Africom realized it lacked rules to carry out drone strikes in Kenya, leading to the drafting of the guidelines to be used to counter future attacks by the militants, The New York Times added.