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Concern in Kenya over the cost of Somalia operation grows
As hundreds of Kenyan soldiers hunt al-Qaida-linked militants in Somalia, university students are growing angry that their government can afford a military operation but not raises for thousands of university lecturers.
Hundreds of University of Nairobi students began protesting after some 7,000 lecturers went on a week-long strike. Police fired into the air to disperse the students, some of whom had prepared for exams earlier this week only to be told they were being postponed.
Lecturers make around US$800 a month in Kenya, and their salaries have not be raised in three years.
Kenya’s Higher Education Minister Margaret Kamar said she sympathizes with the lecturers, who decided Thursday to postpone their strike for two weeks to allow for negotiations. But the financial resources simply aren’t there, she says.
“We have sat down and discussed with the prime minister and finance minister, we cannot add anything because of our boys in Somalia,” Kamar said.
Hundreds of Kenyan troops moved into Somalia last month to hunt down the al-Shabaab militants, who have threatened to strike inside Kenya in retaliation. Military budgets in Kenya are not publicly released, and the government has not said how much the operation will last or how long it will take.
It couldn’t come at a worse time for Kenyans: In October, inflation was nearly 19 percent because of skyrocketing food and energy costs, fueled by a depreciation in the Kenyan shilling against the dollar. Kenya’s Central Bank raised interest rates recently to stem the shilling’s decline, raising the costs of personal loans.
And the country’s critical tourism industry is being threatened by a rash of kidnappings inside Kenya blamed on the Somali militants.
