36 CIVILIANS KILLED IN ATTACKS IN EASTERN DR CONGO

Beni, DRC

Thirty-six people have been killed in a suspected militia attack in the eastern DR Congo region of Beni, where hundreds have died in violence since November, a local official said Wednesday.

A survivor of a previous attack near Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo that was attributed to the armed group ADF 

Congolese troops have been carrying out a military operation on an armed group in the east of the country -- long plagued by various militias -- and militiamen have responded with a series of massacres against civilians.

"They were all hacked to death. This brings (the toll) to 36 bodies," local Beni governor Donat Kibwana told AFP, updating casualties from Tuesday's attack. 

Officials had earlier reported 15 fatalities.

Two people with skull fractures caused by machetes have been admitted to the hospital in Oicha for surgery, an AFP reporter there said.

The main attack took place late Tuesday in Manzingi, a village 20 kilometres (12 miles) northwest from Oicha, while a pastor was also killed in nearby Eringeti.

According to a toll compiled by a civil society organisation, the Kivu Security Tracker (KST), 265 people have now been killed in the Beni region since the army began its crackdown on the armed group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), on October 30.

The massacres seem to be a tactic by the ADF to frighten the population into silence, local commentators say.

The group has also disrupted operations to curb an outbreak of Ebola in North Kivu province.

Tuesday's massacre occurred to the west of the ADF's usual area of operations, which is closer to the Ugandan border.

The army offensive, unfolding in thick forest and jungle, has led to what the military say is the capture of the group's headquarters and the killing of five of its six leaders.

The ADF, blamed for the deaths of more than a thousand civilians in Beni since October 2014, began as an Islamist-rooted rebel group in Uganda that opposed Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

It fell back into eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 1995 during the Congo Wars and appears to have halted raids inside Uganda. Its recruits today are people of various nationalities.

UN experts estimated the ADF in 2018 to number around 450 fighters.

A report to the UN Security Council last week said the ADF seemed to follow an extreme Islamist ideology, but there is no information on whether the group had links with international jihadist groups.

The spate of massacres has become a major challenge for President Felix Tshisekedi, who took office a year ago last Friday.

In November, angry protests erupted in the city of Beni, the region's administrative hub, as citizens accused the UN peacekeeping force in DR Congo of failing to protect them.

Tshisekedi, in his first state-of-the-nation address to Congress, last month said he had changed the army command in Beni and sent 22,000 troops to the region.

BURUNDI JAIL 4 JOURNALISTS FOR ENDANGERING SECURITY

By Our Correspondent, BUJUMBURA Burundi

A court in Burundi on Thursday sentenced four journalists to two and a half years in prison after they were convicted on charges of trying to undermine state security.

Four journalists of Burundi's independent media Iwacu Press Group and their driver appear at the High Court in Bubanza, western Burundi, Dec. 30, 2019, accused of complicity in endangering the internal security of the state.

The journalists are with Iwacu, one of the few remaining private media organizations in the East African nation. 

One of their lawyers, Martin Ndayisaba, told journalists they will appeal the decision of the court in Bubanza Province. They have 30 days to do so.

They were arrested in October last year in Musigati district in the western province while covering the aftermath of clashes between the army and a rebel group from South Kivu in neighboring Congo.

President Pierre Nkurunziza’s government has cracked down on the media ahead of this year’s election in May. Several local radio stations and media houses have been closed and many journalists have fled the country.

The government suspended broadcasts in Burundi by Voice of America and the BBC. Jean Bigirimana, a journalist with Iwacu, has been missing since July 2016.

Burundi has been plagued by political violence since 2015, when Nkurunziza announced he would seek a disputed third term. He won re-election despite widespread protests, and the United Nations says more than 1,200 people have been killed in the ensuing crackdown.

Nkurunziza has said he will not run again and the ruling party recently named an army general as its candidate for the election.

Amnesty International said the conviction and jail sentences for the journalists “on trumped-up charges marks a sad day for the right to freedom of expression and press freedom in Burundi,” said Seif Magango, Amnesty International’s deputy director for East Africa.

“The authorities must quash the conviction and sentences, and the four journalists must be immediately and unconditionally released. … The Burundian authorities must ensure that every journalist in the country can work freely, without fear of arrest, harassment or intimidation, particularly ahead of upcoming elections.”

EXPLAINER: INSIDE THE PLANS FOR TRUMP'S EXPANDED TRAVEL BAN

* Several of the countries on the possible target list, such as Nigeria and Tanzania, have strong economic and security-related ties to the United States.

By Ted Hesson, Washington US

U.S. President Donald Trump said he plans to expand his travel ban to bar people from several additional countries, a move that could again reignite questions about whether the policy discriminates against Muslims.

Trump said during a visit to Davos, Switzerland, last week that his administration planned to add “a couple of countries” to the ban, but did not give further details.

According to a source familiar with a draft version, the tentative list of nations included Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania.

Trump is seeking re-election in November and has made immigration restrictions a central focus of his 2020 campaign.

The revised ban could appeal to Republican voters and Trump’s stance will contrast with the current crop of Democratic candidates. A survey by Politico-Morning Consult released on Wednesday found that 73 percent of Republican voters backed the policy.

The announcement of the ban’s expansion is expected to come as soon as this week, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official who requested anonymity to discuss the process. The timing is close to the third anniversary of its original release, which occurred within days of Trump’s January 2017 inauguration.

The travel ban went through three iterations, all which were challenged in federal court. The current version — issued as a presidential proclamation in September 2017 — requires the DHS to review the visa restrictions every 180 days and permits the addition or removal of countries. The ban was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2018 and includes a periodic review of whether countries should be added or taken off the list.

The Trump administration has not publicly announced the countries under consideration for the expanded travel ban, nor given reasoning for targeting specific nations. But Reuters confirmed that the administration has weighed visa restrictions against Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania, a list first reported by Politico.

The country list could change before Trump issues the new ban, the DHS official said. The U.S. State Department declined to comment, while the DHS and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA, suggested during a call with reporters on Tuesday that barring countries such as Myanmar and Eritrea, where the organization has documented human rights violations, could make it more difficult for migrants seeking safety in the United States.

Several of the countries on the possible target list, such as Nigeria and Tanzania, have strong economic and security-related ties to the United States.

In 2017, Trump reportedly complained that Nigerian immigrants coming to the United States would never “go back to their huts” in Africa, according to a New York Times report that year. The White House denied at the time that Trump referenced “huts” in the discussion.

Nigeria received no warning from Washington that it could be subjected to the new ban, a Nigerian government minister said on Monday.

As directed by the current ban, the DHS completed a worldwide review of countries last year that evaluated whether the entry of their nationals into the United States could cause a public safety threat, according to the DHS official and a second department official.

The review examined each country’s ability to verify the identity of its own nationals, information sharing practices with the United States, and possible terror or public safety risks, the officials said.

State Department officials then attempted to work with the countries to remedy outstanding issues, a step that removed some countries from consideration, according to the officials.

Ultimately, Trump will decide the countries that will be subjected to the visa restrictions, the officials said.

The updated travel ban will be tailored and not outright bar all travelers from the countries, according to the two DHS officials.

Instead, the countries will be subjected to a range of visa restrictions with a focus on immigrant visas, according to one of the officials. Such visas - unlike a visitor visa - can lead to permanent residency.

Since it’s implementation in December 2017, at least 79,769 visa applications have been subject to the ban, according to date from the State Department. Of those, 6,333 qualified for exceptions and another 17,798 were granted waivers, but a federal lawsuit claims the waiver process is opaque and difficult to navigate.

During Trump’s presidential campaign in 2015, he called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”

After he issued the first version of his travel ban, critics derided the order — which targeted travelers and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority nations — as a “Muslim ban.”

Three of the nations under consideration for the updated ban — Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria and Sudan — have majority Muslim populations. Eritrea and Tanzania have sizable Muslim minorities.

The list of countries currently subject to visa restrictions include five Muslim-majority nations — Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. North Korea and Venezuela also faced visa restrictions, but those measures affect relatively few travelers. Litigation over the ban is continuing. - Africa

TEARS AND CHEERS AS EU LAWMAKERS GIVE FINAL NOD TO BREXIT

BRUSSELS, Belgium

The European Parliament gave final approval to Britain’s divorce from the European Union on Wednesday, paving the way for the country to quit the bloc on Friday after nearly half a century and delivering a major setback for European integration.

Members of the European Parliament react after voting on the Brexit deal during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium January 29, 2020. 

After an emotional debate during which several speakers shed tears, EU lawmakers voted 621 for and 49 against the Brexit agreement sealed between Britain and the 27 other member states last October, more than three years since Britons voted out.

Thirteen lawmakers abstained and the chamber then broke into a rendition of Auld Lang Syne, a traditional Scottish folk song of farewell. Britain’s 73 departing EU lawmakers headed for an “Au Revoir” party in the EU chamber after the vote.

Earlier on Wednesday, Britain’s ambassador to the EU handed documents formalising Brexit to a senior EU official. Against a backdrop of British and EU flags at the bloc’s Brussels headquarters, Tim Barrow, smiling, passed over a dark blue leather file embossed with the emblem of the United Kingdom.

After protracted divorce talks, Britain will leave the club it joined in 1973 at midnight Brussels time (2300 GMT) on Friday, when British flags will be removed from EU offices and the EU flag lowered on the British premises there.

With a status-quo transition period running only until year-end, fresh talks - covering everything from trade to security - will begin soon on a new relationship.

“We are considering a zero-tariff, zero-quotas free trade agreement. But the precondition is that EU and British businesses continue to compete on a level playing field. We will certainly not expose our companies to unfair competition,” European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen told the chamber.

Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier told envoys of the remaining 27 members earlier on Wednesday that a loose association agreement like the EU has with Ukraine should serve as the basis for new relations, diplomatic sources said.

“We will not give ground on issues that are important to us,” Barnier said, according to sources briefed on the closed-door meeting.

On his last working day as a member of the European Parliament, leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage told reporters there was “no going back” once the UK leaves.

“The UK didn’t fit, we’d be better off out,” he said, describing euroscepticism as a settled view in the UK, where “Leave” won the 2016 referendum by a narrow 52 to 48 percent margin.

He said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised him there would be no so-called ‘level playing field’ clauses on fair competition in the new EU-UK deal, highlighting a major point of contention with the bloc in the coming talks.

As Farage beamed, his Brexit Party lawmakers waved goodbye to the chamber with mini Union Jack flags and chanted “Hurray!”, but their Socialist compatriot Jude Kirton-Darling choked back tears.

“It’s probably the saddest day of my life so far. Brexit is something that attacks the very foundation of our identity,” said Kirton-Darling, who plans to stay in Brussels with her Belgian husband.

Guy Verhofstadt, a liberal EU lawmaker from Belgium and a staunch europhile, lamented Brexit as a historic debacle: “It’s sad to see a country leaving that twice liberated us, twice gave its blood to liberate Europe.”

As a new reality dawns on Europe from Saturday, the UK’s Permanent Representation to the EU, or UKRep, will become a foreign mission - already dubbed “UKmissEU” by some. – Reuters

KENYA'S FOREIGN POLICY FAILED IN SOMALIA?

FILE: In 2012, Kenyan troops helped Sheikh Ahmed Madobe, leader of the Ras Kamboni, take the Somali port city of Kismayu in southern Somalia 

By Abdullahi Halakhe

After gaining independence in 1963 and throughout the Cold War, Kenya tried to stay away from the internal and external struggles of its neighbourhood. While Ethiopia allied itself with the erstwhile USSR and Cuba, Somalia aligned with the United States and Tanzania became the intellectual hotbed for the Third World left, Kenya maintained poised neutrality and a policy of non-intervention.

Daniel Moi, the country's second president after independence, sought to firewall Kenya from spillovers of regional conflict by maintaining a foreign policy of ideological ambivalence - being neither a friend nor a foe of regional and international powers.

Moi also took up mediating conflicts in the region and made it the main feature of Kenyan diplomacy which carried on even after the end of the Cold War. During his presidency, Kenya became the venue for peace negotiations between the warring sides in Sudan, Somalia, and Uganda.

Various agreements were negotiated and concluded in Nairobi, including the 1985 peace deal between the Ugandan government of Tito Okello and the National Resistance Army (NRA), a rebel group led by Yoweri Museveni and the 2005 peace agreement between the Sudanese government and southern rebels, which ended Africa's longest-running civil war.

Kenya also played an important mediation role in the Somali conflict, hosting the negotiations and the signing of the agreement that led to the creation of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in 2004.

This strategy not only ensured Kenya's internal affairs were undisturbed by regional developments but also earned it a certain diplomatic reputation in the region.

Today, both of these are on the line because of repeated mistakes Kenya is making in its policies towards Somalia. Kenyan military presence on Somali land has entered its ninth year, which has now metastasised into entanglement in Somalia's internal affairs and encouraged more al-Shabab violence on Kenyan territory. Kenya's imprudent stance on its maritime dispute with Somalia also threatens to erode its international reputation.

For decades, bilateral relations between Kenya and Somalia remained warm and cordial. But in 2011, the Kenyan government decided to send troops to its neighbour, which since then has been a source of considerable friction between Nairobi and Mogadishu.

Kenya's intervention in Somalia was in line with the zeitgeist of the "war on terror" launched by the US in 2001. Packaging the intervention as an "anti-terror" operation automatically guaranteed domestic support and international immunity for human rights violations.

The official justification for the military intervention was the pursuit of al-Shabab members who allegedly abducted aid workers in northern Kenya and kidnapped tourists along the coast.

The intervention has since degenerated into an occupation. Currently, there are more than 3,600 Kenyan troops in Somalia, primarily deployed in the semi-autonomous southern Somali region of Jubaland.

Over the past eight years, the Kenyan forces have been accused of committing various human rights violations against civilians and being involved in illicit smuggling activities. The Somali government has demanded that Kenyan troops leave, but it has not followed up with any serious effort to expel them, given its own limited capacity to provide security.

At the same time, the Kenyan military presence has done little to secure Kenya from al-Shabab's attacks or Somalia itself for that matter. In fact, violence has escalated since the intervention. 

Kenya has witnessed a number of large-scale al-Shabab operations, like the ones in Westgate Mall in 2013, and the Garissa University in 2015, which took the lives of hundreds of civilians, as well as numerous low-grade and low casualty ones.

Since October, there have been on average two al-Shabab attacks every week in Kenya and Somalia. In the first half of this month alone, the armed group raided a military camp used by Kenyan and US soldiers in southern Kenya and then launched four other attacks, killing 10 civilians.

The intervention has revealed the underbelly of Kenya's security policy, its failed military strategy and the inability to police its own borders.

Alongside the military intervention, Kenya has also involved itself in the maelstrom of Somali domestic politics.

Its principal vehicle of involvement in Somalia is Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed Islam, also known as Madobe, an Islamist militia commander from the Somali Ogaden clan.

Madobe is seen as a rather controversial figure, having switched sides in Somalia's civil war multiple times. He was part of various Islamist armed groups since the 1990s. He has fought against the government in Mogadishu as an ally of al-Shabab for years and was involved with militants seen as supportive of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a separatist group who has fought for Somali self-determination in eastern Ethiopia.

In 2007, a year after Ethiopia sent troops to Somalia to back the TFG against the Islamist insurgency, Madobe was hit by a US bombing and captured by the Ethiopians, who offered him a political deal. He accepted to join the TFG in 2009, but shortly after he deserted his new post and with his Ras Kamboni militia joined al-Shabab in their fight against government and African Union troops.

In 2011, he struck another deal, this time with Nairobi, and the following year, his militia, backed by Kenyan troops, managed to expel al-Shabab from Jubaland's capital, Kismayo, which is also a strategic port city. 

Over the next two years, Madobe presided over clan reconciliation and in 2015, with Kenyan backing, he was elected president of Jubaland. In the 2019 presidential election in the semi-autonomous state, Nairobi again supported his candidacy, despite the fact that the Somali government opposed it.

Kenya's backing for Madobe has revealed that all along it was not only interested in containing al-Shabab, but in establishing a "sphere of influence" through Jubaland - a satellite statelet, remote-controlled from Nairobi.

This misguided support for Jubaland, however, is something anyone with a basic understanding of the dynamic in the Horn of Africa would have counselled against. For the fragile government in Mogadishu, the strengthening of Jubaland means the weakening of its powers.

For Ethiopia, Kenya's interference in a region predominantly populated by the Ogadens, the largest Somali clan, whose members also live in southern Ethiopia and have a fraught with the government, is creating unnecessary tension.

Thus, Kenya is not only endangering its relationship with the Somali government but also with Ethiopia, a neighbour and a major regional power, with whom it has a decades-old defence pact to ensure regional stability and curb Somali irredentism.

If Kenya's original sin was the 2011 intervention, its natural outcome is the needless maritime dispute with Somalia. Both Nairobi and Mogadishu claim a narrow triangle of about 100,000 square kilometres off their coasts in the Indian Ocean. The territory supposedly has oil and gas deposits.

The dispute could have been resolved amicably had Kenyan officials taken the issue seriously and had they regarded their Somali counterparts with some modicum of respect rather than assuming Somalia is a failed state incapable of mounting any defence.

As a result, the case eventually ended up at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which last year decided to delay its ruling to 2020 to let the two sides negotiate further.

Instead of correcting their earlier mistakes, Kenya's ministry of foreign affairs officers dug in their heels and started engaging in petty moves like denying Somali officials entry into the country and reintroducing flight stopovers in Wajir for security checks for all flights to and from Somalia, substituting petulance for diplomacy.

For decades, Somalia has regarded Kenya as a neutral arbiter compared with Ethiopia which Somalis have resented for its multiple military interventions. The overarching danger is that, in the end, Kenya's intervention and meddling in Somalia's internal affairs, coupled with the self-aggrandisement of a bubbling and venal elite, could ruin Kenyan-Somali relations.

This will also undermine the authority and capacity of the federal Somalia government to administer the country, especially if AMISOM troops depart as scheduled by December 2020. 

The net winner of these squabbling and reckless diplomacy will be al-Shabab, which will continue to enjoy enough space to launch attacks in Kenya and within Somalia. The ultimate loser will be the Somali people who have endured decades of conflict. 

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect editorial stance. 

SADC BOSS DEFENDS ZIMBABWE

By Our Correspondent, Gaborone BOTSWANA

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) says the US Embassy in Botswana is lying that corruption and failed economic policies are behind the economic challenges facing Zimbabwe.

US Ambassador to Botswana, Craig Lewis Cloud after meeting Dr Stergomena Tax in Gaborone Tuesday

The embassy says the sanctions remain in place because of the “human rights abuses and anti-democratic efforts” by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.Yesterday, the US Ambassador to Botswana, Craig Lewis Cloud, invited SADC executive secretary Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax, to the embassy buildings in Gaborone where the two parties discussed “the root causes of U.S. sanctions in Zimbabwe”, according to a statement released by the US Embassy in Botswana.

The US Embassy in Botswana further said: “Ambassador Craig Cloud and Dr. Tax also discussed how failed economic policies and corruption have created the current economic crisis in Zimbabwe.”

The statement angered Dr. Tax, who immediately responded to it on Twitter and told the US Embassy in Botswana that it was pure lies.

“This was not part of what was discussed! (It) might be the position of the US Embassy, but definitely not SADC’s position,” Dr. Tax said.

The regional body insisted that Dr. Tax to Ambassador Cloud reiterated SADC’s call for the immediate removal of sanctions on Zimbabwe and the need to further engage on reforms that will see a recovery of country’s economy.

The regional body has always stood in solidarity with Zimbabwe regarding the issue of sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States government.

On the 25th of October last year, SADC held solidarity marches in member states to build regional momentum in the region for the call for lifting of sanctions. SADC also insists the sanctions hurt not only Zimbabwe, but the region as well.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Cloud says he impressed upon Dr. Tax that the United States is the biggest bilateral donor to Zimbabwe.

“Ambassador Cloud explained to Dr Tax that the U.S. remains the largest bilateral donor to Zimbabwe, providing well over $3 billion in support since independence,” said the US Embassy in Botswana.

Zimbabweans who responded to the statement by the US envoy called for the lifting of sanctions, saying Zimbabwe needed economic space to develop herself and not aid. - Africa

ZIMBABWE MP ‘STEALS’ MAIZE FOR FOOD RELIEF

Harare, ZIMBABWE

ZANU-PF Gokwe Sesame MP Gordon Chanda (41) and a local councillor have been arrested for allegedly extorting money from villagers and stealing maize meant for people under the Government’s food relief programme.

Police in Gokwe said the MP handed himself over at Gokwe Central Police Station yesterday morning while Ward 13 Councillor, Goergina Chirongoma (34) was arrested on Monday night.

The duo appeared before Gokwe magistrate Mr Shortgame Musaiwona facing charges of criminal abuse of office.

They were remanded out of custody to February 11 on $1 000 bail each. Chirongoma had relaxed bail conditions while the MP was asked to surrender his passport to the police. He was also asked to report twice a week on Monday and Friday at Gokwe Police Station and reside at his number 615 Nyaradza Gokwe house.

Prosecutor, Mr Liberty Chimwaradze said some time in December last year, the two took advantage of their positions and organised a meeting with village heads in Chirongoma’s ward.  

They asked them to get people in the ward to contribute $5 each saying the money was for the completion of Gande clinic which was under construction in the ward.  There are about 13 000 villagers in the ward.

Mr Chimwaradze said the village heads went out and organised their subjects and collected $7 091 which was then handed over to the two.

The court heard that it was subsequently discovered that the construction of the clinic was being funded by Gokwe South Rural District Council using devolution funds and the two had allegedly connived and diverted the villagers’ money into their own use.

In the second count, Mr Chimwaradze said on December 16 last year, Chirongoma went to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) Gokwe depot and collected 3 200 bags of maize which were meant to benefit villagers under Government’s food relief programme.

The court heard that Chirongoma under-declared the number of bags which were supposed to be dropped at each distribution centre in her ward.

Investigations which were conducted by the police showed that from the total number of bags that Chirongoma collected from GMB, she underdeclared them by 120 bags of 50kg maize which were supposed to be shared by the villagers.

Police recovered some of the maize at Chirongoma’s house.

Mr Musaiwona said the matter involving the food aid could not proceed since police had only managed to complete investigation into one count involving 120 by 50 bags of maize yet there are allegations of more counts.

“It is said there are more counts to be investigated. Only one case of a haulage truck which had 120 bags said to have been abused was completed and more investigations need to be completed. So this matter will only be heard when the investigations are complete,” said the magistrate.

LOCUSTS INVASION MAY DIM KENYA ECONOMY GROWTH

Nairobi, KENYA

Men surrounded by a swarm of desert locusts in Kenya

The Kenya Treasury has termed the invasion by desert locusts as a “systemic risk” that might prevent the economy from attaining its medium-term growth target of seven percent.

Systemic risk is the possibility that an event at an industry level could severely hurt the entire economy.

While estimates of the economic damage caused by the migratory pests on pasture and farmlands are yet to be quantified, the Treasury said potential disruption of agriculture poses systemic risks to Kenya’s economy.

“Locust invasion witnessed in the country in late 2019 and early 2020 poses a risk to agricultural production and food security,” says the Treasury in its recently released Budget Policy Statement.

“(The locust invasion) could have a negative impact on agricultural output, leading to higher inflation that could slow down economic growth.”

Elevating the locusts invasion as a fiscal risk places the invading insects among other potential threats to the economy that are watched keenly by policy wonks.

Desert locusts are considered by scientists the most dangerous of all migratory pests because they can eventually develop wings and form a cohesive swarm, which can cross continents and seas.

They can devour crops from entire farm fields in a single morning.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani

On Monday, Agriculture Secretary Peter Munya said it would take up to six months to bring the locusts under control.

Other risks to the economy, the Treasury said, include public spending pressures, particularly related to wage-related recurrent expenditures as well as climate change and variability which it notes “has enhanced the frequency of disaster such as landslides, droughts and destruction of physical infrastructure”.

“The government continually monitors these risks to inform appropriate mitigating monetary and fiscal policy measures to preserve macroeconomic stability and strengthen resilience in the economy,” said the Treasury.

The Kenyan economy grew 5.1 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2019, compared with 6.4 percent in the same period in 2018, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said in December.

In the absence of these risks, the economy should be growing at a higher pace averaging seven percent annually within the next three years, “due to ongoing investments in strategic priority areas including the Big Four,” said Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani.