Somalia has condemned the arrest of one of its diplomats in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, during a security operation to flush out illegal immigrants and militant Islamists.
By Mohamoud Godah,
SOMALI Federal Parliament in their Saturday session discussed the mass arrests and the brutal crackdown on Somalis in Kenya in general by Kenyan police and in particularly the detention of Consular of Somali Embassy in Nairobi Mr. Siyad Mohamud Shire who have been held in custody for more than 5 hours.
Kenyan security forces especially anti-terrorism police unit have entered to Shire’s house in Nairobi without permission and then took the chief Protocol and unknown number of people who have been in the house of the diplomat to the police station where the consular has been held for more than 5 hours before he was released by the Somali Ambassador in Kenya Mohamed Ali Amerika.
Speaker of Somali federal parliament Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari stressed that the arrest of Somali diplomatic staff in Kenya was contrary to international diplomatic etiquette.
“Both actions, the arrest of the diplomat and entering his house without permission is a clear violation of international diplomatic immunity. Police action is despicable and completely can’t be tolerated. We call on Somali government to write a complaint letter to Kenya and ask to give more clarification on the incident where a high profile member of the Somali embassy was snatched from his house by Kenyan armed forces” Said Jawari.
Speaker of Somali parliament likewise told Kenyan Parliament to understand that Kenyan security forces’ crackdown on Somali ethnic society is conflicting to universal human rights conventions.
“We don’t want Kenya/Somalia relations to be degraded; but we want more explanation about the incident and similarly the unending crackdown targeted on Somali ethnic community in Kenya.”
Kenyan anti-terrorism police unit reasoning the arrest of the diplomat told that they will investigate him for that he was suspected of having links with radical groups.
This incident is coming in a time when Kenyan Security forces were increasingly and indiscriminately arresting Somali ethnic community since the beginning of this month.
Reports confirmed that more than thousand people from Somali ethnic community regardless children, women and youth were heartlessly abused by the Kenyan police forces.
Additionally; people of Somali origin in Kenya is experiencing a fear of being charged of terrorism because of their ethnicity.
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