Kenyan ports open to al-Qaida weapons

MOMBASA, Kenya -- Wooden dhows sail into Mombasa's centuries old port every day, unloading everything from smuggled baby formula to illegal weapons -- all under the eyes of police and customs officers bribed not to notice, Kenyan and U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

Nearly all the contraband comes from neighboring Somalia, a lawless country where al-Qaida operatives procured missiles and explosives that were smuggled by sea into Mombasa and used in twin attacks on Israeli targets a year ago today, according to a recent U.N. report.

In the year since, little has been done to staunch smuggling in eastern Africa, making it easy for terrorists to slip weapons through Kenya's corrupt ports and largely unpatrolled coves that dot its Indian Ocean coast, said a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

A deeply rooted culture of smuggling is a problem throughout eastern Africa. Al-Qaida has twice struck Kenya and there are indications the Islamic terror network is plotting a third attack; Kenyan police uncovered a plot to destroy the new U.S. Embassy this past June.

That makes smuggling along the predominantly Muslim coast of the East African country -- where al-Qaida is also known to be recruiting -- a serious concern in the war against terrorism.

There are senior Kenyan officials working to clean up the ports, but they are fighting a well entrenched bureaucracy -- a battle that could take years to win, said the U.S. official, speaking from Washington.

"We cannot say there is no longer corruption at the ports," said Mombasa's district commissioner, John Egesa. "We know there are weapons coming in, we find them each day in the hands of criminals."

He insisted Kenya's new government, elected last year on promises to stamp out corruption, is cracking down at the city's old port and its modern container facility, though he refused to elaborate.

But a police officer who works at the ports and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said no action has been taken and smuggling flourishes.

How it works

According to the officer, a 10-year veteran, boat owners pay shipping agents in Mombasa to make sure goods are cleared through the port without paying taxes or import duties, which can run as high as 50 percent.

The shipping agents -- the officer named a number of them -- then pay off police and customs officers to look the other way.

Most of the smuggled goods are harmless -- clothes, electronics and spices -- and require only small bribes. But for illegal weapons -- usually guns, but occasionally explosives -- more money is paid to higher-ranking officials, the officer said.

In August 2002, the officer, who is paid $80 a month, said he and other officers were bribed $13 each to let a dhow unload weapons at Mombasa's old port. A senior police official arranged the payments, the officer said.

The officer said he could not see the weapons, which were concealed in boxes and covered with blankets.

That same month, the United Nations said in a recent report, al-Qaida smuggled into Kenya shoulder-fired missiles that were used in a failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner taking off from Mombasa's airport in November 2002.

The missiles, purchased in Somalia, "were smuggled into Kenya by sea," the report said. "The launchers had been painted blue and white, presumably to camouflage their real purpose and to minimize risk of discovery during onward transport to Mombasa."

Around the same time the missiles were fired, suicide bombers detonated a car bomb outside the Paradise Hotel north of Mombasa, killing 15 people, including three Israeli tourists and at least two bombers.

"Some of the components of the bomb, including the detonator, may have been obtained from Somalia," the U.N. report said.

It's not clear if the weapons came through Mombasa's old port or one of the coves outside the city, said one of the U.N. investigators, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The coves are rarely, if ever, patrolled by the police or the Kenyan navy, said the police officer.

One of those coves is down a sandy road outside the village of Shariani, about 12 miles north of Mombasa.

On a recent afternoon, two dhows were on the horizon.

"They're going back to Somalia. They came last night," said Ahmed Rashid, a fisherman who moors his boat in the cove.

Those dhows were loaded with powdered milk from Europe and cheap Somali sugar, he said, but sometimes the dhows "bring weapons."

Throughout eastern Africa, security needs to improve at ports -- both land and sea -- said U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. Mastin Robeson, the commander of an American-led anti-terrorism task forced based in nearby Djibouti.

"Customs is an awful lot of what needs to happen here -- just good, old simple customs work in airports and ports," Robeson said in a recent interview with AP, noting one of the task force missions' is to help regional governments improve security at ports.

"But now you are talking about a whole new organization that requires money, that requires structure, none of this stuff is quick to get at -- it's hard," he said. "It's training, it's mentality."