Somalia is seen by Washington as a hotspot in the war against violent Islamists. A lack of strong government for two decades has made the Horn of Africa nation a haven for foreign jihadists bent on striking the region.
Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda first struck east Africa in 1998, killing hundreds of people, mostly Africans, in simultaneous suicide bomb attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
“Kenyans are happy and thank the US people, the Pakistani people and everybody else who managed to kill Osama,” Odinga told Reuters. He said many Kenyans still lived with physical and mental scars from the 1998 attack.
“Osama’s death can only be positive for Kenya, but we need to have a stable government in Somalia,” Odinga said. “The loss of its leader may first upset the movement but then it will regroup and continue.”
The United States has said Somalia’s al Shabaab militants waging an insurgency to topple the UN-backed government are Al-Qaeda’s proxy in the region.
Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for suicide bomb attacks in Uganda that killed 79 soccer fans watching the soccer World Cup final last July, and have also threatened to strike Kenya.
In 2002, a regional Al-Qaeda cell bombed a hotel on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast and attempted moments later to shoot down an Israeli passenger jet taking off from the port city of Mombasa.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki commended those responsible for tracking down and killing Bin Laden. “His killing is an act of justice to those Kenyans who lost their lives and the many more who suffered injuries,” he said.
Victims of the embassy blast in Nairobi called Bin Laden’s death a relief but feared renewed support for militant Islamist groups in the region.
Douglas Sidialo, who was blinded by shards of flying glass when a truck bomb detonated outside the US mission in Nairobi in 1998, said Bin Laden’s death was a “huge relief.”
“This is justice from the maker (God). However, I would rather he had been captured and confessed to his evil deeds,” said Sidialo. “I fear that this might trigger renewed recruitment amongst those who viewed Bin Laden as a martyr.”
A top Tanzanian police officer echoed Sidialo’s fears.
“Osama is just one man, he is not the last terrorist in the world. The war on terrorism is not over. We have more battles to fight,” Robert Manumba, director of criminal investigations, told Reuters.
