Corrupt, pathetic, hopeless, basket case, failed state, pirate haven - these are some of the nouns and adjectives used, with different degrees of accuracy, to describe Somalia. Regarding our war-ravaged, bandit-infested eastern neighbour, Kenyans appear to agree on one thing: something ought to be done. But as Capt. Collins Wanderi Munyiri's essay, Let Somalis be illustrates, discord emerges only on the issue of what exactly we should do to help and how we should go about it.

Nearly every option available to the Kenyan government -- from doing nothing to outright military intervention -- is undesirable. In the end, though, Kenyans will come around to the realization that military action dressed as a multinational effort to help Somalia's transitional government to assert control over the territory is one of the least undesirable of the options available to the government.

Can military intervention be justified? Munyiri, who is partly motivated by self-preservation (he says he might be "called out for military service in the event of a long drawn-[out] war") argues that "Al-Shabaab is essentially an internal issue for Somalia and Somalis." He asks supporters of military intervention, "go to war over what and why?" He misses the point. The issue isn't Al-Shabaab specifically, but the effect of Al-Shabaab's illegal activities on Kenya's security.

It might help Munyiri to remind himself how we got to this point. Our Somalia-linked problems have roots in the events of 1991, when then-Somali President Siad Barre was overthrown by factions led by Mohammed Farrah Aidid, leaving a political vacuum in Mogadishu that no successor government has since been able to fill. Factional fighting has created a constant flow of refugees across the border, and with refugees, illegal weapons.

More recent events have forced the issue of Somali anarchy and its consequences on Somalia's neighbours onto the top of Kenya's national agenda:

    * Attacks by Somali pirates on cargo ships in the Indian Ocean compelled some of the world's great powers to intensify maritime patrols off the Somali coast. Dozens of captured pirates have been handed over to Kenya for trial, prompting warnings of retaliation by Somali militants said to fund their activities with ransom money acquired through piracy. Some of the ransom money is said to be laundered in Kenya.

    * The Sunday Nation, quoting unidentified Kenyan intelligence sources, reported in April that al-Qaida-inspired Al-Shabaab militants had infiltrated our country, that security forces were watching the activities of suspected militants, and that they had arrested a number of suspects, including a man nabbed in Thika and said to be carrying "600 detonators" reportedly destined for North-Eastern Kenya.

    * In March, Somali bandits seized four Kenyan education officers and the driver of their vehicle and held them hostage for three days, accusing them of illegally crossing into Somalia. (The five were later freed.) The incident followed the abduction of two Kenyan police officers in July 2008 by Somali militants, who had crossed the border and raided a police post near Mandera. The "officers' mutilated bodies were found hanging from trees in a hilly area on the [Somali] side of the border," according to the Nation. Kenyan media have reported similar raids in North Eastern Province, attacks in which police officers were injured or killed and guns and ammunition stolen.

These attacks must weigh heavily on President Mwai Kibaki and members of his government, who would not want to be seen to be dillydallying while a storm gathers in the east. Also, officials are aware that many of the guns used in violent crimes in Kenya originate in Somalia; the government would be equally unwilling to appear impotent in the face of rising crime.

The attacks have also added fuel to the debate among ordinary citizens about what, if anything, Kenya should do to prevent the anarchy in Somalia from spilling over into Kenya. As the government weighs its next move, the general public, whose reaction is naturally mixed, has begun to express concern, although it's clear that the extent of the Somali threat hasn't fully hit home with some ordinary Kenyans.

Consider the responses of listeners of the Kikuyu-language radio station Kameme FM in Nairobi, which on June 24 sought the views of the listeners of its morning show "Arahuka" on whether Kenya should assist Somalia to deal with its crisis. Some of the responses are eloquent and intelligent; others are illiterate and smell of malice and stupidity (the transcript was obtained from BBC Monitoring via LexisNexis).

Here is a text message from a listener in Karatina that readers would agree follows persuasive logic, with some good humour. It could have been written by a well-educated government propagandist:

      There is no way you can eat, sleep and snore when your neighbour is dying, when you know that your neighbour is in trouble and you know that his trouble could well become yours. The crisis in Somalia is a threat to Kenya's security. That is where guns and the grenades in Kenya come from.

Another listener, this one from Makuyu, also in a text message, echoes the interventionist viewpoint (the sentences in parenthesis probably were not part of the original text message and were likely added by a BBC Monitoring editor):

      Sending an army to Somalia is long overdue. We should have done that when they overthrew Siyad [sic] Barre's government. If we had done that together with other countries we would not have the trouble we have now in places like Eastleigh here in Kenya (a suburb in Nairobi inhabited mainly by Somali nationals. Guns coming from Somalia are said to be sold there).

As one would expect, there were silly responses, too, denoting the common human tendency to try to extract humour from grave matters. One caller said the Kenyan military should be sent to Somalia "because there is no work they do here in Kenya." The radio show's presenter wanted more: "Are you sure?" To which the caller, appearing to change the subject, responded, "Yes, they were allocated about 40B (shillings, about 532m dollars, in the recent budget). If I was in the army I would say we go there."

Some listeners were opposed to military intervention and expressed their opposition with crisp force. In a text message, a female listener wrote, "No, everyone should carry their own cross. We should not help them at all," while an unidentified listener wrote, "No one helped us when we had trouble."

Of the eleven respondents whose views made it to the air on Kameme FM, seven supported military intervention, while four opposed. The admittedly small sample of Kameme listeners can't be said to represent the views of the general public in Kenya, but as a snapshot of public sentiment of what Kenya's response to Somalia should be, there is clearly strong support for military intervention.

That seems to be the direction the government is heading, judging from the recent, though guarded, public pronouncements of Kenyan leaders. Kibaki, speaking at a graduation ceremony for administration police officers in Gilgil on June 26, said, according to The Standard, "We will need to diversify our approach and get more involved in regional security initiatives to assist neighbouring countries, especially Somalia, achieve stability." (Although it is worth noting that the Vice President, speaking on the same day, had a slightly different take, according to the Nation.)

Prime Minister Raila Odinga, speaking to the media on June 22, accompanied by Somalia's Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake, said Kenya had not reached a decision on whether to offer military help to Somalia.

It's unlikely - and this might ease Munyiri's concerns - that we would see Kenyan tanks and warplanes unilaterally roaring into Somalia any time soon. The most likely scenario is that Kenya, along with other African Union countries, would contribute troops and equipment in a multinational effort to shore up the Somali government. At the very least, Kenyans expect the government to use all means at its disposal to secure Kenya's borders and protect its citizens.

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