The Somali port city of Kismayo is in political crisis as two former warlords are both claiming to be president of the newly created Jubaland region of southern Somalia. Fears are growing that the rivalry could lead to an outbreak of violence. The Somali government still maintains it doesn’t recognize the two leaders. Mohammed Yusuf reports.

The political division in southern Somalia still continues after more than six months of negotiations to elect local authorities to govern the regions of Gedo, Middle and Lower Juba.

On Wednesday, 495 delegates meeting in Kismayo elected Ras Kamboni militia leader Ahmed Madobe as the president of Jubaland, over four other candidates.

But another former warlord, Barre Hirale, who controlled Kismayo for close to nine years, has said he was elected at a separate conference of elders.

“In a conference, which was going on for some time, I was elected as the president of Jubaland,” said Hirale. “In that conference 600 delegates attended and 500 voted for me. Because of that I have become the president of Jubaland.”

Returning warlord

Hirale was chased out of Kismayo by al-Shabab militants – when Ahmed Madobe was a top commander in the group. He returned to Kismayo last month by sea with dozens of loyal soldiers.

Abdi Mohamed Yarow is an elder with the Hawiye clan, which is in the minority in Kismayo. He was present at the swearing-in ceremony and told VOA the elders had appointed Hirale as their president.

“Today we were at the swearing-in ceremony of the president of Jubaland state Barre Hirale,’ Yarow said. “We have decided to make him our president and we have just done that, he is the president of Jubaland.”

Some sections of the Somali population have expressed concerns over the recent threats of violence in the city and its environs concerning this dispute over who should be president.

Seeking solutions

Ahmed Soliman, Horn of Africa researcher at Chatham House, a foreign policy institute in London, said to avoid a return of violence in the region, both militias from the two rival camps need to be integrated into the Somali national army.

“What we are talking about is eventually, militia being reintegrated into Somali national force. That’s a way of stemming potential conflict in the future, but it very much has to come off the back of political process and I do see political process is in complete and it would continue,” said Soliman.

He also said that after months of negotiations, people can’t be too impatient. Soliman noted the process will take time, and he said that expressing fears is not the right way forward.

“I think there is need to take time, and to asses and to negotiate properly with all the stakeholders. It does seem to me there are a lot of stakeholders involved, and that’s a good thing, and that means it takes longer to achieve consensus,” he said.

The government in Mogadishu has expressed concerns about the roles played in Jubaland by some stakeholders, particularly by the Kenyan government. Kenya has been accused of backing the Ras Kamboni leader, Ahmed Madobe, who helped Kenyan forces to liberate Kismayo last year.

The Somali federal government has refused to recognize any leadership appointments in Jubaland, deeming the process unconstitutional.

A sixteen-member committee appointed by the prime minister to look into the Jubaland issue arrived Thursday in Kismayo.

Riot police in Kenya fired teargas and water cannons Tuesday to disperse more than 200 demonstrators gathered outside parliament to protest a push by legislators to raise their salaries, as the national economy struggles. Mohammed Yusuf reports from Nairobi.

Kenyan protesters denounced newly-elected members of parliament for burdening ordinary citizens by asking for a pay raise before taking up important legislative work.

Demonstrators poured animal blood at the gate of the parliament building and brought dozens of pigs to feed on the blood, symbolizing the greed of the Kenyan lawmakers.

One protester, Fredrick Odol, said if the lawmakers are not satisfied with what they are paid they should resign.

“I am demonstrating basically because we are refusing hefty payment to the parliamentarians,” said Odol. “We consider it as greed and we are telling them if they cannot accept the payment they are given by the salary and remuneration commission they should resign. We are not desperate for leaders.”

On March 4, the salary and remuneration commission revised lawmakers’ salaries down from $10,240 to $6,400 per month.

In reaction, members of parliament called for disbanding the commission, which was established in 2011 to set pay rates for public officers.

Another protester, Michele Emali, a third year student at the University of Nairobi, says the voters are to be blamed for electing such leaders into office.

“We should blame ourselves as Kenyans because we are the ones who voted for the MP’s and we were advised to vote wisely, which we did not,” said Emali.

Human rights lawyer Harun Ndubi says members of parliament have fallen into the habit of increasing their salaries as they wish.

“Parliament has been the only public institution that has been regulating and determining its own salaries contrary to public expectations, contrary to public policy, and therefore this is the expression of people’s anger,” said Ndubi.

The previous parliament also attempted to raise its salaries and award themselves retirement perks before leaving office earlier this year. The move was vetoed by outgoing president Mwai Kibaki.

Newly-elected President Uhuru Kenyatta, in his first address to the parliament last month, expressed concern the cost of public wages is too high, and stated his desire to bring it down.

Kenya spends 12 percent of gross domestic product on public wages.

Talks on the creation of the federal state of Jubaland in southern Somalia have made little progress despite months of negotiations.

In the meantime, relations between the central government and local actors have become increasingly strained, evidenced by a power struggle over the port city of Kismayo. The tensions have thrown the country’s new federal system into doubt. Mohammed Yusuf reports.

Since the capture of Kismayo by Kenya Defense Forces in October of last year, politicians, elders and local militias have been engaged in talks organized by the eastern African organization IGAD.

Over the past month, a meeting of 800 delegates representing local communities from the regions of Gedo, Lower and Middle Juba approved a constitution for the new state. However, some participants have complained that the balance was stacked in favor of more powerful players in the discussions.

One of the delegates, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said the conference was heavily influenced by Ras Kamboni militia leader Ahmed Madobe, who helped Kenyan forces liberate Kismayo from al-Shabab.

“The conference was supposed to be neutral and every region is to express its views independently,” he said. “There were 870 delegates who approved the constitution, when there were supposed to be 500. Some of these delegates were Ras Kamboni militiamen who were in civilian clothes.”

Neither Madobe nor any representative of Ras Kamboni returned calls for comment.

Hassan Samantar, a politician and key player in establishing Galmudug state in central Somalia, said clan representation at the conference was also unbalanced.

“The problem now is the representation of the elders who will select the delegates based on the regions, so this is really a big headache,” he said. “Some groups, they were protesting yesterday that they were not having a fair representation [and] that some clans, they were given for example 10 elders to represent them, others one or two , so there was no balance.”

The process of creating Jubaland has attracted the interests of Kenya, Ethiopia, IGAD and the Somali federal government, which is trying to define its relationship with the region of 1.3 million inhabitants.

The new Somali constitution ratified last year sets up a system of states around a central government, but some observers say there has been little progress in establishing the mechanisms to make federalism work.

Ahmed Soliman, Horn of Africa researcher at Chatham House, a foreign policy institute in London, said there are no clear rules for the founding of Jubaland, and that the uncertainty over the process could be dangerous.

“It does seem to me pressure to rush ahead with this, whether or not this means we will see potential conflict over Kismayo or Jubaland remains to be seen, but there is certainly a chance that could happen given the nature of how things are moving ahead,” Soliman said.

There are already indications of rising tension, as several sources in Kismayo confirmed that former warlord Barre Hirale, who once controlled the port city for close to nine years, arrived Thursday by sea along with dozens of loyal militia soldiers.

Soliman said Hirale’s presence could be a concern to the region and everyone involved in the process.

“That would be a concern for the region and it would be in concern whoever in Kismayo is able to uphold the peace because the peace has been relatively sure in making AMISOM coming into Kismayo so you wouldn’t want a conflict to start right now, it won’t be good for the process,” said Soliman.

The central government has dismissed the Jubaland process as unconstitutional, saying it lacks legitimacy.

Five years ago during election-related violence in Kenya, young people brutally attacked and burned a church in Kiambaa – which housed ethnic Kikuyus who fled from their farms and houses. Today, on the eve of another election, locals remembered the tragedy at a church service. Mohammed Yusuf reports from Eldoret.

Worshipers sang at Kiambaa Church in Eldoret, in the Rift Valley region of Kenya. It was here in early 2008 when young men from the Kalenjin and Kikuyu tribes fought around the church, which housed hundreds of people who had fled their homes during the initial post-election violence.

According to some of the witnesses and survivors, about 200 Kikuyu men tried to defend their women and children inside the church.

After more than an hour fighting, they say the Kikuyu men were overpowered by more than 1,000 Kalenjin youths who were attacking the church from all directions.

Anne Mwangi, now 44, is one of the people in the church who survived that day with her four children.

She says when she escaped the church the attackers grabbed her hand and said they were trying protect her while she looked for her children. She says when she reached the gate, she was shocked when she saw an old man hacked to death with an axe.

Peter Mwangi is the son of the man who hacked to death that day. Mwangi says he and his father were among the people who tried to fight back and defend their families being attacked inside the church.

The father of two says when they were overpowered he and other young men tried to run to the main road to call for help.

He says it took two hours for the police to arrive and chase the attackers away. After that, he says they saw their people had been burned to death in the church and some killed outside.

Lingering fears

In this election the political landscape is different as Kikuyu and Kalenjin are united in the Jubilee alliance.

But for Peter Mwangi, the grief of his loss then is as real as his fear today. He says he could not go back to point out where his father was killed because of possible reprisals from some of his neighbors.

He says the locals are from different tribes, and some of his neighbors are not good people. He says he fears they will think he is giving out information on the attackers and it is best not to speak about it.

Paul Karanja is a pastor in the new church, built 10 meters from where the original church was burned down. He says this community did not get enough help from the police following the last elections and there is little faith the response will be better if there is election violence again.

“We thought policemen could help protect us from the attacks, although they did not. Houses were burned when police were there. They were just shooting up [in the air], but they were doing nothing else…”

Human-rights organizations have also raised concerns about the ability of the Kenyan police to handle possible election-related violence. But security officials have assured Kenyans this time that they are ready and up to the task.

As Kenya prepares to vote in the national elections Monday, the country is still bearing the scars of the violence that erupted the last time around, after communities turned on one another and burned down each other’s homes and farms. We re-trace one woman’s journey through the violence back to a volatile border town between two communities. Mohammed Yusuf reports.

Fifty-six-year-old Yunike Nyamwite, a farmer, lives in Chepilat, a town on the border that separates the Rift Valley and Nyanza regions of Kenya.

Nyamwite, an ethnic Kisii, has a farm on the predominantly Kalenjin side. The two communities over the years have fought over livestock and accused each other of grabbing land that doesn’t belong to them.

The mother of six, who is married to a retired air force commander, says the house she spent years building was burned to ashes in the violence that followed Kenya’s 2007 elections.

She says she finished building the house and was planning to move in when violence started and the house and farm was burnt to the ground, She even has a picture with her. All her husband’s savings, were used to buy the land and building of the house. She says they lost everything because they were also paying their children’s fees.

John Kitur is a pastor at a local church and the neighbor of Nyamwite. He says they tried to stop the rowdy youths from burning other tribe’s houses and farms, but they were helpless.

He said when post-election violence started, it brought problems and he said they love this mother (Nyamwite) and he said we were ready to help her but the attacks carried out by mass of people made us as neighbors helpless to help her and that attack has brought lots of problem to the victims.

The Rift Valley region was the epicenter of ethnic clashes that followed Kenya’s 2007 disputed presidential poll. The bitterness degenerated into inter-communal fighting in which more than 1,100 people were killed and more than 600,000 displaced from their homes.

Nyamwite went back to her farm after she was persuaded by her neighbors. She says she has struggled to put her life back together after what has happened to her.

She has finished building her new house on the farm. She just moved to her new house two months ago.

Nyamwite says she is the only one from her community who went back to her farm, but she hasn’t yet fully recovered from the early 2008 attack.

She said the problems she faced, she still feels the pain, and now she has pressure she didn’t have before. She still visits the clinic to get treatment. She felt so bad but she had no other choice but to go back to her farm after it was destroyed. She says she is the only one who is back in the community, others have not returned.

Pastor Kitur says neighbors don’t attack each other, but this was the work of other people from other towns who come to disrupt the peace.

He says when the situation gets worse and so many people are carrying and coming with weapons, they say whoever tries to stop them from attacking people, they warn them that tomorrow they will come for their homes.

The top government security officials in the country have assured Kenyans of their safety come Monday, the day of the elections. For people like Nyamwite, they hope this time security forces will be able to take charge and give them protection.

In Kenya, the Rift Valley region was the epicenter of ethnic clashes following the 2007 disputed presidential poll. With a new election just a few days away, some people are taking care to be outside the province this time, in case violence erupts again. Mohammed Yusuf reports.

Five years ago, 44-year-old Peter Mureithi went to his ancestral home in Central province to vote. He voted there not because he feared or anticipated election-related violence, but to visit people back home.

Then, post-election violence displaced an estimated 600,000 people, and Mureithi was among them. His house and shoe shop in Kapsabet town in the Rift Valley were looted and vandalized during clashes between the Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities.

In this election, Kikuyu and Kalenjin are in the same coalition, but Mureithi, a Kikuyu, said he fears for his life again.

He said, “What has made me to vote back at home again is what happened in 2007.” He said he fears for his life in a place like Rift Valley, and he has decided to vote at home.

In a small garage in Bomet, Dickson Owino, a mechanic, said he was present in 2007 when ethnic Kikuyus were attacked because they supported a party that most of the local community was opposing.

He said, “In 2007 we were in one party, ODM.” At that time those who were not in ODM like PNU they were affected. He said this time, even though lessons have been learned, you still do not know what will happen, so to be safe is to vote and go home.

He noted in this election his Luo community is supporting the CORD coalition, led by Prime Minister Raila Odinga, not the Jubilee coalition led by Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North parliament member William Ruto.

Alexander Odhiambo, who is also a Luo, is a community worker in Bomet. He said even though he campaigns for peace in the region, he will leave nothing to chance, and he will also leave as soon as he cast his vote.

“I am involved in preaching peace, but honestly, personally, I am uncertain of the situation, me being a foreigner in this place Bomet,” he said. “I believe that I have to put my safety first and maybe come back after the results are announced.”

Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto are accused of helping to organize the post-election violence five years ago, in which more than 1,100 people were killed. Both face trial at the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity.

Kenya’s coalition government feels it has carried out enough reforms to avoid a return of violence. But many Kenyans believe the reforms have fallen short.

Mureithi said he is tired seeing himself and other Kenyans feel unsafe every election period, and he hopes something will be done to stop the cycle of violence.

He said it is not a good life for a Kenyan. It will be good to see everyone whenever he is in the country to feel comfortable, not people fearing for their lives just because they happen to be in another part of the country. He said he hopes the next government will be one to bring peace, and people will never again be seen living from one town to another.”

On the four-mile stretch of paved road between the Kenyan army’s main base and the southern Somali city of Kismayo, a man leading a donkey cart whispered a short warning in the local Somali language as a fleet of Kenyan troops and allied Somali militiamen rolled past.
Mohammed Yusuf reports from Kismayo.

“Watch out,” the man, who gave only his first name, Adan, in the brief encounter, told a McClatchy correspondent. “There might be bombs on the road ahead.”

When told of the exchange minutes later, a Kenyan soldier growled. “These people work with al Shabab,” said the officer, who never gave his name. “They know where bombs have been planted, but they won’t tell us. Don’t trust them.”

In Kenya, the news that its army has captured Kismayo, the longtime stronghold of the al-Qaida-affiliated rebel group al Shabab, had been trumpeted as a resounding victory against a defeated Islamist militant network.

But, on the ground, the truth is much muddier. It’s clear that al Shabab had been weakened, but also that it is far from vanquished and that it is regrouping for a long-term guerrilla insurgency.
When Kenya crossed into Somalia in October 2011, Kismayo was the goal – the financial nerve center for a rebel administration that covered most of southern and central Somalia. Since its capture in late September, however, Kenya has boasted of its conquest but blocked access to the city for foreign reporters.

A visit to Kismayo this week reveals perhaps part of the reason why: Kenyan soldiers rarely venture into the city’s center and remain holed up instead in bases at the seaport and at airstrips north and south of the city. With al Shabab fighters able to melt in and out of civilian life with relative ease, Kenyan soldiers struggle to identify friend from foe.

Outside the city, the war is far from over. Al Shabab still controls much of the countryside, and at night, the pop and thump of firefights rage until dawn. The Kenyan military says al Shabab frequently carries out hit-and-run attacks at night. The fighting seemed especially concentrated toward Anjeel, a village a few miles from Kismayo that was supposedly wrested from al Shabab control.

At the southern airstrip, troops fan out on foot to secure a three-mile radius before incoming aircraft land, leery of unseen enemies in the bush.

“You must have a defensive line around the airport so that we can avoid attacks from all directions,” said Kenyan Maj. Nicholas Adongo.

To the north of the city, a Kenyan commander pointed further north toward the town of Jilib, which al Shabab still holds and from which it often launches attacks, most recently a mortar barrage on Nov. 25.

“We are waiting for commanders to tell us to move forward,” said Lt. Col. William Lenterakwai Ole Kamoiro.

In Kismayo, people are slowly returning to their homes, and businesses are reopening. In place of al Shabab, Kenya’s Somali allies, the Ras Kamboni militia under warlord Ahmed Madobe, now rule the city under a form of martial law.

Speaking freely is still dangerous. After seeing a McClatchy correspondent interviewing a civilian without a translator, a Ras Kamboni port supervisor broke up the interview and tried to confiscate the correspondent’s notebook and recorder. A Kenyan military escort asked the correspondent to return to the armored personnel carrier for his own safety.

At a village just south of Kismayo, village chief Hassan Abdi said that, at this point, he and his neighbors were too focused on survival to care much anymore which men with guns were now in charge.

“We work with everyone who controls the city. I worked with al Shabab, and this is no different. We have no choice,” he said.

Yusuf, who reported from Kismayo, and Boswell, who reported from Nairobi, Kenya, are McClatchy special correspondents.

Amnesty International is raising concerns about the ability of Kenyan police to handle possible election-related violence as the country prepares for the March 4 polls. The rights group says delays in reforms mean that many of the same police structures in place during the deadly 2008 post-election violence still exist. Mohammed Yusuf reports.

Amnesty International acknowledges that progress has been made in bringing the entire police force under one structural command, and the appointment of David Kimaiyo as Kenya’s new inspector general of police.

But according to the group’s country director, Justus Nyang’aya, police officers on the ground have not changed their attitude and the way they carry out their duties.

“2007-2008 violence several people died, several people were displaced, it was actually managed by the system of the police that we are still having today,” he said. “Nothing has changed in terms of attitude, nothing has changed in terms of training especially for the police to be able to manage the use of force.”

Kenya’s last general elections in 2007 were marred by post-election violence – much of it between ethnic groups – in which more than 1,100 people were killed and more than 300,000 displaced from their homes. Police were unable to stop the violence, prompting calls from leaders and the public for police reforms.

A 34-page report from Amnesty documents continued human rights violations by the police, including arbitrary arrests, extra judicial killings and other abuses.

The rights group says the security forces have also failed to protect the people of coastal Tana Delta region, where two rival communities recently attacked each other, killing 200 people and driving more than 100,000 from their homes.

Presenting his presidential papers to the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission, Prime Minister Raila Odinga called on security forces not to take political sides during elections.

Nyang’aya says that during the 2007 elections and the violence that followed, some of the police took sides and used excessive force against opposition supporters.

“We want a professional police, we want a police that will be neutral,” he said. “We want a police that will not take sides in looking the issues of election and supporting one side, as had happened 2007-2008, where there were opposition candidates the police in fact killed people in that area.”

Earlier this week Odinga rejected police appointments made by President Mwai Kibaki, citing lack of consultation and constitutionality of the appointments.

Amnesty International warns that failure of the police reforms may mean the March 4 polls may not be free of violence.

Somali refugees living in Kenya are returning to Somalia by the hundreds after the Kenyan government ordered them to go back home. The Kenyan government says the presence of Somali refugees has led to the deterioration of security in the country. The Somalis themselves fear a government crackdown. Mohammed Yusuf reports.

This week, the Kenyan government began relocating more than 50,000 Somalis living in Kenyan cities back to overcrowded and under-serviced refugee camps near the border, citing security concerns. Thousands are also being flown back to Somalia.

The government directive targets people like Anab Duale, a mother of six who fled Somalia twelve years ago to escape fighting over the disputed territory between Somaliland and Puntland where she lived.

She says when she first arrived in Kenya it was a peaceful place and its people treated her and the Somali people well.

“To be honest with you life was good here, Kenyan people were good people, but now the public have turned against us,” said Anab. “They just came with a ruling that has made people run away day and night. Police are even coming storming residential areas to arrest people.”

Kenyan authorities began sweeping Somali neighborhoods following a series of grenade attacks targeting bus stations, mosques and churches last year. Kenyan officials have blamed the attacks on the Somali militant group al-Shabab and its sympathizers, and have arrested hundreds of people suspected of being involved.

Anab says she does not want to move back to Somalia, but that the police pressure in Nairobi has made life here too difficult.

“The police are still making arrests,” she said. “The other night they were just here arresting boys especially. I am saying they have to work on the security of the country and maintain the peace we once had.”

It is noticeably quieter these days in the Nairobi neighborhood of Eastleigh. Many of the vendors and shops in this predominantly-Somali area have shut down in recent months, and the streets are nearly deserted.

Thirty-six-year-old Hassan Hashi says he has been forced to close down his business and that he is ready to go back home.

Hashi says he doesn’t work now and the security situation has deteriorated. He says merchants he used to take goods from have refused to sell goods to him when they heard that people were returning back to Somalia. And he says he has decided to go back home because police are arresting people 24 hours a day.

The Somali embassy in Kenya has been busy for the last three months issuing thousands of travel documents to people like Hashi who have volunteered to return to Somalia.

Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya says the number of flights going to Somalia has increased. He says there are at least two flights a day from Kenya to Mogadishu with each flight carrying 150 to 180 passengers.

The ambassador characterizes the travel as a good thing, saying it is a sign his country is moving toward being a peaceful and stable nation, after years of civil war.

Kenya’s decision to relocate refugees has been condemned by the United Nations refugee agency and human rights organizations. The rights groups say the decision to forcibly place refugees and asylum seekers in camps away from urban centers is a discriminatory and unlawful restriction on freedom of movement.

A series of grenade attacks in a Somali neighborhood of Nairobi this past year has killed dozens of people and injured more than 100 others. Members of the Somali community living in the area believe the attacks are politically motivated, and accuse the Kenyan government of trying to chase them away from the city. Mohammed Yusuf reports.

The Eastleigh district of the Kenyan capital Nairobi has suffered a series of deadly attacks targeting churches, mosques and bus stops in recent months.

The attacks have led to police carrying out sweeps arresting hundreds of people in the area.
The police have blamed the al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab and their sympathizers for the spate of bomb and grenade attacks. The government also said the presence of Somali refugees has led to the deterioration of security in the country.

But the chairman of the Eastleigh Business Community, Hassan Gullet, said the attacks do not the bear the hallmarks of al-Shabab, and that there may be other forces at work.

“We really doubt its issues based on al-Shabab. The explosives which they are using are very small. What we believe is this – it has a political connection. Because the target is definitely Somalis we suspect that probably this is one which is supposed to create a bad harmony between Somalis and non-Somalis who are Kenyans, it could also be a way of chasing Somalis from the country here,” Gullet said.

Kenya has faced a wave of terror attacks in the country since its troops entered Somalia to fight al-Shabab more than a year ago.

However, the militant group has not claimed responsibly for the attacks in Eastleigh or other parts of Kenya.

Police have arrested hundreds of people across the country in the wake of these attacks. But regional police commander Moses Ombati admits that they have yet to find the actual perpetrators.

“We want to know who [is] this person giving explosives and throwing grenades; this is the person we are looking for,” he said. “It’s not many people, it’s not something we can say is out of hand, this is something that is under control, only that we have not got the right person.”

On Wednesday, the Kenyan government issued a directive calling on all Somali refugees and asylum seekers living in Eastleigh and other towns to move to the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps.

Abdifatah Abdullahi, a businessman in Eastleigh, said the directive will affect refugees but people like him with proper documents should be free from harrassment by the police.

“Before we secure the area, people with the right documents should feel secure,” he said. “They are the ones who are arrested and accused of being a suspect. It’s wrong to treat everyone you see in the street as a suspect, that increases the fear among people.”

Amnesty International has also condemned Kenya’s directive, saying the decision to place refugees and asylum seekers in camps away from urban centers is a discriminatory and unlawful restriction on freedom of movement.

Hassan Gullet of Eastleigh Business Community said tension in Eastleigh has given security forces a green light to abuse, harass, and extort money from people.

“When explosion takes place and people are injured, definitely government takes reaction [action] now,” he said. “Sometimes they overreact and round up people indiscriminately and when they do that we end up having a lot of problems. Our security officers are not all good, there are some who are bad, and they target people where they possibly want to make money and they do make some money.”

Security officers have released some of the suspects arrested in the sweeps after interrogation, but police say they are still holding some whom they think will give them a lead to get those responsible for the attacks.

For now the fear is growing among Kenyans, who are calling for the police to get to bottom of the terror attacks and apprehend the culprits.

And Somalis, fearing further attacks, tit-for-tat violence and the police anti-terror campaign, are starting to leave Nairobi, to either head back to Somalia or to the refugee camps.