The impact of terrorism in Kenya decreased from high in 2022 to medium in 2023, a new report has revealed with the trend being attributed to the strengthening of the country's counter-terrorism efforts.
The report published by Global Peace Index also shows that the work done by security agencies to thwart terror attacks in areas predominantly affected by terror also contributed to the reclassification.
"This is attributed to ongoing Multi-Agency Security Operations against AlShabaab in Lamu and Northeastern Region, which resulted to killing of terrorists, destroying AlShabaab makeshift camps and successful arrest/prosecution of terrorists," the Counterterrorism Policing quoted the report.
Previously in 2022, Kenya’s ranking was recorded as High, depicting the country as a country struggling to contain terrorism.
Kenya's reclassification to medium means that the country has been placed in the same level as; the United States, Egypt and Uganda in terms of the terror threat facing the countries in question.
Notably, Tanzania was ranked as one of the countries with the lowest terrorism impact alongside countries like Burundi and Libya within Africa.
The report, however, ranked Burkina Faso and Israel as the countries with the highest threat of terrorism in the world.
Further both countries were ranked as having experienced some of the deadliest terrorism attacks in 2023.
Counter Terrorism Policing lauded the government for using a development approach to countering terrorism which included undertaking projects such as LAPPSET.
“Additionally, the government is using a development approach to deal with violent extremism and terrorism by investing in infrastructure and other economic projects like LAPSSET to stimulate the economy across the country,” elaborated CTP.
It was also noted that Kenya has undertaken a soft approach towards ensuring communities collaborate with the government in matters of security.
This the community group stated has resulted in better information sharing between agencies and Kenyans.
However, a previous report ranked Nairobi in the top 10 cities with high insecurity rates across Africa, with the city being ranked at position 9.
