The State Department at first congratulated President Mwai Kibaki on his re-election but later rescinded as European Union and other observers reported irregularities in the vote-count. Since then, the Bush administration has been trying not to take sides in the election dispute and his Ambassador taken unofficial role as the Spokesperson for the entire International community pressuring Kenya's political elite to come to a compromise. To America, it is unfathomable that one of its most reliable and crucial partners in the "war against terror" was going to crumble in its lap.

The US is concerned about the security ramifications in the Greater Horn of Africa which it has been trying to hold together. A quick look at the map of Eastern Africa gives America little solace. Somalia is in anarchy with a multitude of warlords and radical Islamists, Sudan is involved in the Darfur war and Ethiopia is near war with Eritrea, which the US accuses of sponsoring terrorism. Between the grim sketches is Kenya, America's hope in the region which is now teetering on the verge of instability.

Kenya's political situation unravels at a time when the 2008 US defence budget has substantially increased reinforcing the Bush administration's persistence that its long "war on terror" will remain at the centre of its security strategy. The core budget for 2008 is expected to be $481.4 billion, compared with $441.5 billion for 2006. In raw terms, the US defence budget is now at similar levels to those during the height of the cold war in the mid-1980s.

Kenya is one of the four 'anchor states' in sub-Saharan Africa in the US led "war on terror", though it has bore the brunt of terrorist attacks. On 31, December 1980, the bombing of the Jewish family-owned Norfolk hotel in Nairobi killed 15 people and injuring 80 others. This was viewed as a revenge attack by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) on Kenya for allowing an Israeli rescue mission to use its facilities to foil the 1976 hijacking of an Air-France plane and its 258 passengers.

It was deadlier on 7, August 1998 after the simultaneous bombing of American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. Some 263 lives were lost among them 240 Kenyans, (11 Tanzanians and 12 Americans) and injured 5,000 Kenyans and 86 Tanzanians.

Four years later, on 28 November 2002, suspected al Qaeda agents bombed the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Mombasa killing at least 15 people. Within minutes, militants using shoulder-fired SA-7 missiles narrowly missed an El Al passenger plane taking off from Mombassa Airport.

Though the targets were Western interests, Kenyans bore the brunt of the bombings due to its closeness to the West. Since 1970, the U.S. has maintained military access agreements with the Kenyan government that permit the U.S. military to use Kenyan sea and air bases. During the Gulf War, the port of Mombasa was extensively used by the U.S. marines as well as during the U.S. intervention to Somalia in 1992 and the Rwanda humanitarian assistance after the genocide. In 2007 during the routing of radical Islamists of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) by Ethiopia forces aided by the US, the Mombasa base was used as a centre field.

Due to its strategic position of being close to failed States - Somalia and Sudan - that are a haven for terrorists, Kenya after September 11 has benefited immensely from America in accessing funds and capacity to address anti-terrorism.

The Pentagon gave Kenya $1.6 million worth of weaponry and other military assistance in 2006 and an estimated $2.5 million in 2007 through its Foreign Military Sales Program. In 2008 the Bush Administration expects to provide Kenya with $800,000 in Foreign Military Financing Program funds to pay for further arms purchases. Kenya has also been permitted to make large arms deals directly with private American arms producers through the State Department's Direct Commercial Sales Program. Kenya purchased $1.9 million worth of arms this way in 2005, an estimated $867,000 worth in 2007, and is expected to receive another $3.1 million worth this year. 

In addition, the Bush Administration intends to spend $550,000 in 2008 to train Kenyan military officers in the United States through the International Military Education and Training Program at military academies and other military educational institutions in the United States. In October 2006, the Bush administration removed certain restrictions on military training of Kenyan officers that had been imposed on them. This is despite Nairobi refusing to sign an agreement with Washington to exempt U.S. personnel from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

For the five years that followed the 1998 US embassies attack in Nairobi and Dar-es-salaam, Kenya was the second biggest recipient - after Nigeria - of U.S. military, counter-terrorist, and security aid in sub-Saharan Africa. It received a total of nearly $80 million through 2004 and those amounts have remained stable. In 2003 the U.S. created a $100 million East Africa Counterterrorism Initiative whose major beneficiary has been Kenya. 

Thus, security cooperation especially anti-terrorism measures has for long been an important aspect of Kenya-U.S. relations, underscored by airbase and port access. Despite the current political disagreements between the US and Kibaki government, the safety measures of this bond will endure.

That is why the US thus will not stand and watch as its most frontline state in the region disintegrates and is impatient to get any deal through which will guarantee stability. It is worth nothing that its voice has radically shifted from the election being irregular to its international interest of security.