Why the attempted remilitarisation of Africa will fail - Lessons from the deployment of Kenyan troops into Somalia by Horace Campbell http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/77841 
Kenya’s foray into Somalia, led from behind by US Africa Command (AFRICOM), ‘represents a heightened threat to peace and reconstruction in Africa, especially East Africa’, argues Horace Campbell. AFRICOM’s attempts at remilitarisation will not solve Africa’s problems, says Campbell, when 'the root cause' of the ‘threats to stability and security challenges’ across the continent is ‘the exploitation and plunder’ of its resources.Sensitive to the future relationship with Africans who want peace, the spokespersons for AFRICOM have been ‘leading from behind’ in this Kenyan operation. In this article, I argue that of the US-supported ventures in Africa, the foray into Somalia represents a heightened threat to peace and reconstruction in Africa, especially East Africa. I will argue that this Western-supported incursion is more against the Kenyan people than against the forces of Al-Shabaab, or whatever name that will be given to the musical chairs of military entrepreneurs in Somalia. In the past 20 years, the US support for militarism in the Horn of Africa has destabilised this region of Africa. Since independence in 1963, Kenya has been the cockpit of imperial ventures in Africa. This was because the radical traditions of Kenya from the period of the Land and Freedom Army had to be contained. After three periods of containment using force, non-governmental organisations and sowing divisions among the progressives, the awakening in Africa pointed to the vibrancy and potential for people-centred change in Kenya. Thus, the security planners in Western states were not going to wait to be surprised by a Tahrir Square uprising in Kenya. This process of remilitarisation will fail in Africa, just as support for Mobutism and support for apartheid failed decades earlier. The challenge for peace and social justice forces in North America and Europe is to take the question of the militarisation of Africa to the forefront of the struggles against the one per cent, and link the issues of militarism more closely to the banking industry and its private military contractors. 
[click link above for rest,that was just a brief excerpt..now see this 1 day ago...  Al-Shabab ambush kills 30 Kenyan troops  http://thenakedfacts.blogspot.com/2011/11/al-shabab-ambush-kills-30-kenyan-troops.html  MUST READ!!! AFRICOM’s Rough Start http://thenakedfacts.blogspot.com/2011/10/africoms-rough-start-httpcsis.html  The quixotic invasion of Somalia will devastate Kenya http://thenakedfacts.blogspot.com/2011/10/quixotic-invasion-of-somalia-will.html