Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed appeared on one of the most heated interviews on television with Al jazeera journalist Mehdi Hasan where she passionately defended the country on various issues.
Ms Mohamed who appeared on UpFront show was brought in to give insight on Kenya’s war against al shabaab, the Somali refugee crisis and Kenya’s spat with the International Criminal Court (ICC), was armed and aready for the firing questions thrown her way by Mr Hasan.
A tough Hasan questioned Ms Mohamed on the fight against the militia group which he claimed the country seems to be losing following the rampant attacks, but the CS took none of it firmly stating that Kenya was winning.
“We are winning the war in Kenya because we have deployed a lot of resources, we have done a lot of capacity building. We have become better in preventing attacks,’ the CS said.
A bold Mohamed pointed out that Kenya’s move to enter Somalia and take the fight to the terror group was the best decision in a bid to safeguard the country’s national security and economic interests.
Despite the reports Hasan quoted to Ms Mohamed indicating that the attack had increased since the move to deploy Kenya Defence Force (KDF) to Somali, she firmly reiterated that the plan was working effectively.
In a show of patriotism, the ambassador refused to divulge information on the number of Kenya’s soldiers killed in the El Adde attack stating ‘I will not even go into that debate’.
“If one dies is one too many, if two die they are two too many. Every body in this war against terrorism is trying their damn best,” she emphasised.
When hard pressed to explain a report by the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the US State Department which show that there have been extrajudicial killings in the country which have also targeted the Somali Community, the Minister rubbished the claims as false.
She divulged that the civil rights bodies had not made any formal communication with the Government adding that she had also not seen the report.
“They’re making it up. That’s all false. Interview them. Honestly they haven’t talked to me. I haven’t seen the report. They haven’t spoken to anybody,” she answered.
She insisted that having a dialogue of the deaf was never going to solve the issues.
On the matter of repatriation of refugees, Ms Mohammed noted that Kenya was working according to the Repatriate Agreement signed in 2013 between Kenya, Somalia and The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to take Somalis back to their country.
The Minister also fiercely defended Deputy President William Ruto over his case at the ICC stating that the court proved his innocence, a statement Mr Hasan immediately denounced as false.
“He was not found to be innocent. That is incorrect. The judges said they refused to acquit your Deputy President of any crime because they could not try him because and I quote ‘a troubling incident of witness interference’,” Hasan stated.
She further stood for President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Jubilee Government come the 2017 General election highlighting that promises made to Kenyans had either been fulfilled or were already underway.
“We have a very good record, we are growing at 5.6 percent,” she said.
