Armed Somali militias on the streets of Mogadishu.

NAIROBI, Jun 7, 2006 – A day after Kenya banned leaders of Somalia's armed factions and their associates from entering the country, authorities deported a prominent Somali businessman with alleged links to a group of secular politicians who have been engaged in a bloody conflict with Islamists in Mogadishu.

The Kenyan government said the faction leaders were undermining efforts by the nascent transitional administration to restore stability in the war-scarred Horn of Africa country.

"The government would like to reiterate its previously stated position that it will not permit its territory to be used by those who persist in destabilizing Somalia and undermining our ongoing efforts to restore peace and security in that country," Kenya's Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Police arrested Abdirashid Hussein Shire from a hotel in Nairobi on Wednesday but freed him when he said he was already booked to leave Kenya on a flight to Dubai. "He has already left for Dubai," an associate who answered the businessman's mobile telephone told IRIN. Shire is said to be a backer of the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, which was ousted from Mogadishu on Sunday by forces loyal to the city's Islamic courts.

Kenya hosted and played a key mediation role during the lengthy reconciliation talks between Somalia's numerous factions, which culminated in the formation of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in 2004. However, the TFG has been beset by internal divisions and opposition from various faction leaders, undermining its ability to establish its authority in Somalia.

"The warlords have become some kind an internal opposition to the Transitional Federal Government, and Kenya hopes that by sanctioning them it will help strengthen the TFG," said an analyst on Somali affairs. "Putting pressure [on the warlords] is useful, but one of the main problems has been failure by the TFG to develop a strong constituency, especially among the Hawiye [clan] in Mogadishu to create a more inclusive government." Several of the most influential warlords in Mogadishu belong to the Hawiye clan.

Veteran Kenyan diplomat Bethuel Kiplagat, who was the chief mediator during the Somali reconciliation conference in Nairobi, said Kenya's decision to ban the warlords from visiting the country would have little effect on the political situation in Somalia because most of them have already been discredited at home.

"They have already been discredited by the majority of the people. They spoilt something [the transitional government] that was very delicately negotiated here [Nairobi]. They should have discussed with the government," said Kiplagat.

Mohammed Affey, Kenya's ambassador to Somalia, said his country was only interested in strengthening the TFG and was determined to hinder any efforts to scuttle that process.

"The underlying fact is that we want a strong, credible government in Somalia, and we will discourage those who instigate trouble and then come here to recuperate when the going gets tough," he told IRIN. "We [Kenya] invested heavily in the process of establishing a government for Somalia, and we will help only those forces that want stability in Somalia," said Affey.

The Kenyan capital of Nairobi is a regional business hub, and many Somali leaders have homes or business interests in Kenya. The Kenyan government hosted Somalia's entire government, including the transitional parliament, in Nairobi for about eight months following its creation because the Somali leadership could not agree on where the new administration would be based inside Somalia.

There are more than 100,000 Somali refugees living in three camps in the Dadaab area of Kenya's Northeastern Province, which borders on Somalia. Most of the refugees in Dadaab arrived in the 1990s, having fled factional warfare and war-related famine that engulfed the country following to ouster of Muhammad Siyad Barre in 1991. Thousands of Somali immigrants live in Nairobi, where most of them are engaged in trade.

Source: IRIN