As CNN projected Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential elections, Kenyans were overjoyed, perhaps because he worked for Barrack Obama. Unfortunately, very few understand his intimate connection with this country and how his political career spanning decades, has influenced Statehouse. His key involvement in sending Kenyan troops to Somalia is often ignored.

The united states has always had a playbook, a military playbook. One which they’ve always looked upon the military to solve all of their foreign policy problems. Korean war, Vietnam war, Kuwait-Iraq war, Somalia, Iraq war of 2003 and Libya are just but a few. Most of these wars had been spearheaded by Republican Administrations and that is still the case even today. The use of American military took a hit during the economic crisis at the fall of the first decade of the 21st century and this became a bargaining chip for Democratic Presidential hopefuls.

Towards the end of 2007, Biden had realized that the use of American troops to implement policies was now a liability. No candidate understood this better than the young first time senator from Illinois, Barrack Hussein Obama. He campaigned on the promise of change, and that is exactly what Americans wanted, hope. When he became the party’s flag bearer, he picked Biden to be his running mate. However, reality kicked in after they won the race, defeating Republican McCain. Barrack and Bidden started receiving classified military and intelligence operations and the real reasons why the wars and covert operations were taking place and by noon of 20th January 2009, it became clear that Obama could not shut down American military and intelligence operations he had criticized while he was campaigning. Obama and his vice realized the playbook was necessary to keep America safe. Therefore, he decided to change the tactic rather than shelve the book. Biden Jr., a young and ambitious senator from Delaware had endorsed the American invasion to liberate Kuwait in the 90s but that was not the case when president Bush Jnr. signaled that time was up for Sadam Hussein in the name of pursuing perpetrators of the deadly September 2001 attacks, infamously known as 9-11 attacks. The Democratic Party had taken a stand and it had decided to go against “the careless use of American boots”.

Experienced Joe Biden hatched a plan. He would make other countries fight on behalf of America. The nation housing America’s biggest Diplomatic Mission in Sub-Saharan Africa was on his list. A top secret meeting was held at the white house situation room in January 2010, the goal was to plan how to convince Kenyans into deploying troops. In return, USA would finance the war, provide technical assistance, expert advise as well as other development grants and cheap loans. The National Security Council in Washington gave the job of getting congress to approve this plan of action to vice president Joe Biden. Intensive negotiations through spring and by summer, the deal was ready. In June 2010, just slightly over a year after he became vice president, Joe Biden arrived in Kenya for a high level meeting with President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga. He was accompanied by his wife, Dr. Jill Biden. Her presence was necessary to make Kenyans believe it was a diplomatic and goodwill visit by the second family. Biden was here to bring Kibaki onboard on the complex global war on terror. The meeting was held at statehouse and by the time Biden came out of the state residence, Kenya had been convinced to fight Americas war in Somalia. The Obama administration would go ahead and deploy a similar approach in Libya where Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was deposed by a coalition built by former first lady and secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.

WHY DID OBAMA DECIDE TO INVOLVE KENYA RATHER THAN ENGAGE AL-SHABAAB DIRECTLY?

1. Events of presidents Bush Snr. and Jnr. were still fresh in the minds of Americans. George Bush Jnr. had deployed half a million soldiers in Iraq in the name of stopping Iraq from developing weapons of mass destruction. Towards the end of his presidency, he would come to admit that those allegations of Saddam building weapons of mass destruction were fabricated and as a result the administration had lost public confidence. it would have been very hard to convince congress to deploy troops in Somalia. On the other hand, Bush Snr. had deployed 28,000 troops in Somalia just a few days before Bill William Clinton became president in 1993. This would prove catastrophic when the president withdrew the marines and left the Delta Force, who were attacked, killed and their bodies displayed in public. It was a humiliating defeat and two weeks later, all Americans left Somalia on orders of president Clinton.
2. Obama had campaigned on ending all the wars America was fighting. simply put, his political fortunes were at stake.

On the 16 October 2011, nearly a year and a half after the visit of the American vice President, Kenyan troops crossed the boarder into Somalia. To this day, we are no longer fighting Biden’s war. It has become our war. We are facing the danger of terrorist attacks from all corners. we don’t know when, where and how the enemy will strike. The big question is, will President Biden re-energize the deal he engineered ten years ago?