Kenyan Millitary officers earn fortunes from trade of illegal charcoal passing through Kismayu, EJ Hogendoorn, an analyst with the International Crisis Group pointed out. Most Somalis "believe Kenya wants to control southern Somalia because it has large oil and natural gas deposits," Mr Hogendoorn on Tuesday told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Al-Shabaab had warned Kenya for interfering with Somalia's affairs by attacking them in Somalia. Kenya Defence Forces last year evicted Al-Shabaab from Kismayu in a bid to distabalise the terrorist organization.
Abdi Aynte, Director of the Mogadishu-based Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, said the US has "a moral obligation to exert pressure" on Kenya and Ethiopia to cease interfering in Somalia's internal politics. Nancy Lindborg,an assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development said Increasing security efforts by the Kenya Defence Forces may create aid access implications in Kismayo and re-ignite tensions in the Somali community
