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During former President Moi’s heydays, Kenya was deeply engaged in peace keeping missions in Yuglosavia, Naimbia and Kosovo which projected the Kenyan Army in good books. However, this was short of expectation of the overall selling of Kenya as a brand destination although Kenya enjoyed favourable mention as a peace loving and peace keeping nation. Those are the nostalgic days when Kenya was marketed with the tag “Kenya hakuna Matata”.
Of course the tag line of “hakuna matata” was meant to capture tourists who have been the backbone of the Kenyan economy when all around Africa the song of many nations was coup d’etats and tribal violence.
It is threats to this self-same economy that brought out Kenyan soldiers from the barracks into Somali .Tourism, the nerve centre of Kenyan economy was under threat by the Al Shabab outfit and as a sovereign nation Kenya had to act. Kenya, which has always followed the diplomatic script in every row found itself in a tight corner with the international community watching to see what it would happen.
She had kept off the Somali war while Burundi and Uganda availed soldiers and war machinery to support the Transition Federal Government (TFG). Apparently this moves had branded the two countries in aunusual way and was having an unintended impact on branding of the two countries.
The dearth of the Kenyan Army in the radar of the world activities had hampered the exploitation of our military to market the nation in strategic interest. Save for sterling and awe-inspiring performances during public holidays and appearances during national disasters such as the 1998 US embassy bomb explosion, the Kenyan army was largely invisible to the public and to the world. Even during such rescue missions on catastrophes the military has been viewed largely as insensitive, as they appeared with guns rather than rescue equipments and tools. Not astounding, because though Kenya is EAC’s leading economy, it was largely perceived as a gutless nation, with an unproven military led by mollycoddled generals who had never gone to war.
A posting in Uganda’s viagra without prescription sale proved this notion existed as a Member of Parliament, Capt Michael Mukula noted, “Kenya has flaunted that it is not a mere careerist army Its soldierly hardware put on show inside Somalia has indubitably raised eyebrows among regional military strategists.”
Without a doubt, in a leaked US diplomatic cable in print on the whistleblower website viagra without prescription sale, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni is reported by US diplomats in Kampala to have scoffed at the Kenya army’s guts and aptitude to do anything about Somali insurgents. Museveni was quoted as describing the Kenyan military as a “career army” and wondering about their knack to take on bush fighters. “Is Kenya used to fighting like this [bush and guerrilla warfare]? Would Kenya be able to provide logistical support to its Somali allies?” Museveni reportedly wondered.
The same notion was shared by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, as it was considered that Kenya had nothing useful to contribute in Somali. Indeed Kenya has branded itself as a country that religiously followed diplomacy sometimes even if it led it to the cross of its own interests. That has not been so good in the branding of Kenya as a country!
Burundi branded itself strategically from the war-wracked, poor country and achieved recognition internationally when it became the only other country to send peacekeeping troops to join the Ugandans in Amisom, the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia. Today Burundi, which used to be relegated to the back of the room, gets a front seat at international meetings on Somalia and peacekeeping in Africa. It is observed that Burundi — and possibly Uganda — got their craving for peacekeeping from surveillance on how Rwanda’s peacekeeping role in Sudan’s western Darfur region overturned its fortunes.
Rwanda sent the first main body of soldiers for the UN peacekeeping force in Sudan, UNMIS, in 2005. A grateful international community immediately became reluctant to disparage Rwanda’s Congo role. Before long, when Rwanda sneezed on Sudan peacekeeping, everyone caught a cold. This was demonstrated dramatically in 2010, when a draft UN human-rights report accusing Rwanda of massacring civilians in Congo in the late 1990s was leaked. The report even hinted that Rwanda troops might have committed “genocide.”
Kigali hit the roof, and threatened to withdraw its forces from the Darfur peacekeeping mission. Rwanda’s argument was that if the UN believed its troops had committed genocide, and then they were unworthy of being in a peace mission to prevent genocide. A withdrawal would have effectively collapsed the mission. The UN panicked. In a first, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon interrupted a European visit, hopped on a plane, and headed to Kigali to press the flesh with President Paul Kagame and massage wounded feelings.
The UN said the report was a work in progress, and hadn’t been reviewed. In the end, its release was delayed, and a “balanced” version was what eventually saw the light of day and made it into the official record. Up to that point, only the US or China had the clout to get that kind of results.
For Uganda, Somalia has been a particular blessing. Like Rwanda’s, the Uganda army, the UPDF, had its icon tattered by its adventures in DR Congo, where it was ultimately damned as a pillaging force. Somalia was a blessing. It has allowed the Ugandan army to be seen as valiant at home, and respected abroad.
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Countries have faced many perceived notions when it comes to branding that is directly related to the military work. The US has had an image about protection of their citizens and interest locally and internationally because its military fronts that endeavour. The same goes with Israel and Britain.
Japanese have desisted from war since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki wars and the same with Sweden which avoided the World War II. When the Somali pirates tried to capture a Russian ship they met a rude shock with the world condemning the act. Russians took off the basic navigation equipment and loaded them on a boat in the high and deep seas: the pirates never found their way back without a compass. This sent a strong message to the pirates but with even such threats they posed a threat to the entire region.
Kenya suffered in silence as the port of Mombasa was being avoided by mariners, the daring acts of the Al-Shabab coming into the soil of Kenya and abducting tourist was the last straw. With the Ugandans claiming the Ugingo and Migingo islands, military-wise Brand Kenya was suffering a dent and came off as a spineless nation in the hands of a ferocious bully. Somali has redeemed Kenya as a brand, with the exposure of trained soldiers, and equipment that can protect its borders both within and without.
Since the Somali incursion, save for small guerilla attacks both within the borders of Kenya, the security situation has improved. The season of December was peaceful with few robberies. The police were in the streets this time seriously looking for insecurity issues and apprehend them before they get out of hand. The military,through the commander in chief President Mwai Kibaki has used this occasion to brand Kenya as country with spine.
If it was a Kenyan who was abducted, would that have caused such a ripple as to get the army out of the barracks to prove Kenya is a sovereign state. Your guess is as good as mine!
By ZEPHANIA OPATI
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