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Reuters /
Siegfried Modola
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The UK is accused of complicity in
the so-called ‘elimination programs’ of terrorism suspects carried out by
Kenyan anti-terror forces.
Members of the Kenyan intelligence
and special police units, including the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU), say
they carry out extrajudicial killings as part of their counter-terrorism
efforts. They claim the UK knew of the killings carried out by Kenyan death
squads.
In a video produced by Al Jazeera,
sources say they have received training and intelligence from the British
military. Kenya’s ATPU was established in 2003 and receives funding from both
the UK and US governments.
“When these
people [UK officials] come for the training, I believe that all this
information is being passed to them,” a source says
in the video, referring to the elimination programs.
He says despite their knowledge of
it, the British don’t intervene by urging senior commanders to stop their
practices.
“Once they give
you the training, that is all. They go back to their country and they leave us
to do their work.”
In an intelligence and security
committee report, the UK government and MI6 were criticized for not pressing
Kenya hard enough about its human rights record in its fight against terrorism
and for accepting Kenyan assurances at face value.
It added that the ATPU “has a
close working relationship with HM government.”
The Guardian has obtained an advance
copy of a documentary that will be broadcast on Al Jazeera on Monday, December
8.
Kenya is currently battling both an Islamist
insurgency and al-Shabaab extremists based in neighboring Somalia. Last year,
terrorist gunmen stormed Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall and killed 67 people
before Kenyan forces quelled the attack.
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