The foreign missions described the Saturday morning bus attack that killed 28 people as part of an international terrorism ring that requires concerted efforts to break up.
Kenya’s Western allies and main trade partners pledged support for the fight against terrorism in the wake of the Mandera terrorist attack, in restrained statements that largely avoided fresh travel advisories against the country.
The foreign missions, which have in the past blamed the State for security lapses, described the Saturday morning attack that killed 28 people as part of an international terrorism ring that requires concerted efforts to break up.
“There can be no place for such senseless acts of violence in our societies. The UK stands by the Kenyan government in its fight against terrorism and in its efforts to bring those responsible for this barbaric act to justice,” said British Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire in a statement sent to newsrooms on Monday.
The UK is Kenya’s top source market for tourists, and any travel advisory issued by the country has a direct impact on the number of visitors to the country’s beaches, national parks and other top destinations.
Official data indicates that UK remained the biggest source of visitors to Kenya last year, even as travel advisories to its citizens saw the numbers drop to 237,700 tourists, from 241,700 the previous year.
The UK is also the second biggest market for Kenyan goods after Uganda. A total of Sh37.6 billion was shipped from Kenya to UK last year, a 7.5 per cent drop from Sh40.6 billion the previous year.
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government has been fighting for the lifting of travel advisories that countries like UK, US and Australia issued early this year after a spate of terrorist attacks in the coastal region.
A short statement from US Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec had similar wording to the one issued by the British High Commission.
The US statement read in part: “This atrocity exemplifies the danger terrorists pose to all civilised societies. …. The United States stands with Kenya in the effort to defeat terrorism.”
The US accounted for 126,100 out of the 1.34 million visitors who came to Kenya last year, falling in the third position after Germany whose 191,900 citizens visited the country over the period.
The US imported Kenyan goods worth Sh29.96 billion last year. Also pledging to help Kenya deal with international terrorism was the European Union, which as a bloc remains Kenya’s top export destination after Africa.
“The European Union will continue to support action against Al-Shabab in Somalia and will work with the Kenyan Government and Kenyan citizens to remove this threat from their country.” the bloc said in a statement.
Leader of the opposition coalition (Cord) Raila Odinga, however, called for a restructuring of security agencies to cope with rising terrorism.
Mr Odinga said the government had all the instruments of power to protect the lives of Kenyans and their properties as envisaged in the Constitution.
Speaking when he visited Chiromo Funeral Home to condole with the families of the victims of the attack, Mr Odinga said the government must take responsibility for the spiralling wave of insecurity in the country.
“It is sad that Jubilee administration refused to dialogue with the opposition on security matters to find a lasting solution to the problem. Kenyans continue to die shamelessly in the hands of criminals” he said.
He termed the Deputy President William Ruto’s statement on the Mandera massacre as “propaganda.”
