According to the team of UN monitors’ report, Kenyan Defence Forces have not enough the business that’s al shabaab’s lifeline.
“Amisom, whose Kenyan Defence Forces contingents remain deployed at the ports of Kismayu and Buur Gaabo, has neither assisted the Somali authorities in implementing the charcoal ban nor facilitated Monitoring Group access to charcoal exporting ports,” the report quoted by the Daily Nation says.
The Somali insurgents earn approximately $10m a year from charcoal to Asia through Somali ports where the Kenyan forces are deployed under the hospice of African Union.
The UN report says this is enables al shabaab to finance its operations and undermines counter-terrorsim operations.
Kenya’s military has previously been accused of taking a cut of the illegal sugar and charcoal trade in Somalia that provides the bulk of funding for terror group al-Shabaab, an allegation Kenyan government has strongly disputed.
The team monitoring Somalia and Eritrea said last year that Kenyan contingent under AMISOM was receiving $2 (Sh200) per bag of charcoal illegally shipped from the port of Kismayo.
“Large trucks are usually taxed $1,000 Sh100,000), with receipts issued by Al-Shabaab to prevent double taxation at subsequent checkpoints,” the monitors recount.
