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Kenya and the United States have worked very closely against terrorism since the targeting of the American embassy in Nairobi in 1998 by Al-Qaeda. But much less debated is US-Kenya cooperation on other issues such as environmental conservation and law enforcement among others.
Cooperation between the two countries on tackling illicit trade in wildlife and narcotics has yielded some notable success in the recent past. A good example is the case of the infamous Akasha brothers - Baktash Akasha and Ibrahim Akasha. Baktash Akasha was expelled from Kenya and became the first Kenyan to be sentenced on drug trafficking charges in New York in 2019.
Both brothers were reported to have links with Al-Shabaab, the Al Qaeda linked terrorist group operating in the Eastern African region. Their arrest and prosecution was considered significant in the fight against transnational organised crime.
Another example was the recent arrest of Abubakar Mansur Mohammed Surur - a Kenyan national wanted in the United States for ivory related offenses. His arrest followed a joint Kenyan-US press conference in Nairobi in which a $2 million bounty was announced for two other Kenyan fugitives – Badru Abdul Aziz Saleh and Abdi Hussein Ahmed. They are believed to be part of a transnational organised crime network engaged in extensive rhino horn smuggling.
The Eastern Africa region in which Kenya falls is made up of states classified by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as either developing or fragile states. This provides “fertile grounds” for transnational organised crimes. These include piracy, terrorism, smuggling of migrants, human trafficking, drug trafficking, and wildlife trafficking.
Corruption facilitates large-scale smuggling. In Kenya, for example, corruption delayed completion of a recently launched ultramodern forensic lab by about 20 years with implications for the fight against crime. This has implications for human security and sustainable development.
Transnational organised crime is cross border in nature. Thus, cross border cooperation is central to tackling it effectively.
Read more: https://theconversation.com/why-us-kenya-cooperation-on-wildlife-and-drug-trafficking-matters-184070