Kenya to expel Somali leaders

Drawing my attention to a report from Nairobi in today's "Sunday Standard," a Somali friend suggests that the U.S. may be pressing the Kenyan government to turn the screws on Somali opponents of transitional president Abdullahi Yusuf. My own reading of the report deepens my concern, since the report coincides with a meeting in Nairobi of the so-called Contact Group on Somalia and suggests that the U.S. member of that group, Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer (shown above), is winning closer cooperation from the Kenyans in support of U.S. policy toward Somalia. Kenyan authorities are screening refugee flows from Somalia, detaining those who may have been supporters of the Islamist movement, and cautioning others who might use Kenyan asylum as a platform for criticizing Somalia's fragile transitional government. What will become of those detained in Kenya is anyone's guess; but it's clear they will not be allowed, in the Foreign Minister's words, to "subvert peace efforts" in Somalia.