Nairobi is a major international hub and a reference city in
East Africa. The UN has a very large presence there, including the world
headquarters of the UN Environment Programme. In addition, there are many
embassies there, a significant number of transnational firms and a dynamic
private sector. For many tourists that visit that part of Africa, Nairobi is
the entry and exit point. The national carrier, Kenyan Airlines, has become one
of the most efficient in Africa. They bring people to Nairobi from many corners
of Africa and fly them out to Europe and Asia.
Furthermore, the political situation, which had been so
traumatizing in the elections five years ago, has evolved in the right
direction. This year’s presidential race was a peaceful exercise in democracy.
Notwithstanding the ethnicity dimension that is very present in the society,
stability has regained the place it used to occupy.
The Kenyan Armed Forces have been a key player in the fight
for peace and normalcy in Somalia. They have inflicted heavy pressure on the
radicals over there and managed, with other African troops, to get the worst of
them, Al-Shabab, out of the Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.
Apparently it is this extremist and highly violent group,
which is also closely linked to Al-Qaeda, that is responsible for the drama
that has befallen over Nairobi since yesterday. They came to kill and to remind all of us that
radicalism and violence are key enemies of democracy and very serious threats
to economic and political stability.
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