Troops tell of highs, lows in campaign

Soldiers’ road to victory

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Lt Col Jeff Nyaga narrates the expriences on the warfront in Somalia during the KDF day at Nanyuki garrison on October 14, 2012. Photo/ JOSEPH KANYI 

By CHARLES MWANIKI cmwaniki@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Sunday, October 14  2012 at  23:30

IN SUMMARY

• KDF forces narrate the ordeal they went through to capture Kismayu the first as KDF is marked

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Kenya Defence Forces commanders and soldiers narrated the ordeals they went through before the capture of Kismayu during Sunday’s celebrations to mark the first KDF Day. The day will become an annual event.

Lt Col Jeff Nyaga, who commanded the central sector, described the lows and highs of the campaign, saying how the soldiers had to battle not only the Al Shabaab insurgents but also heavy rains and difficult terrain.

He spoke at the 10th Engineers battalion headquarters in Nanyuki where the military top brass led by Chief of Defence Forces General Julius Karangi and Army Commander Lt Gen Joseph Kasaon as well as Defence Minister Yusuf Haji were in attendance to celebrate the KDF Day and unveil a monument for soldiers who have fallen in the one-year old war in Somalia.

Lt Col Nyaga described the loss of a KDF Z9 helicopter just two days into the campaign on October 16, 2011 as the low point of the campaign.

Sunday’s celebrations coincided with the day KDF soldiers crossed into Somalia.

He however painted a picture of the bravery of the soldiers, narrating how they often had to deal with an invisible enemy whose tactics was to lay explosive devices and ambushes on supply convoys, yet never once turned back.

They had to switch tactics and start moving supplies across the open country in order to avoid these ambushes, he added.

In another pitched battle, KDF soldiers were attacked at a patrol base near Tabda in a desperate Al Shabaab attempt to provoke the soldiers into firing shells into the town of 600 and cause civilian casualties.

They did not do so, instead engaging the Al Shabaab fighters in a 30 minute gunfight which ended without civilian casualties and led to the fall of the town.

According to Lt Col Nyaga, the turning point in the campaign came when in a fight with around 800 Al Shabaab fighters near Tabda, a KDF company nearly ran out of ammunition, putting them in real danger of being routed by the enemy.

“We mobilised everyone in camp to go and resupply them with ammunition, even those doing clerical, medical and other duties. We also got invaluable air support from a single jet fighter that responded to our calls and whose airstrike changed the course of that battle,” he said.

Lieutenant Abdullahi Unu, a troop commander of the 10th Engineers Battalion told the attentive gathering that the biggest threat faced by KDF in the war was from the improvised explosive devices planted on the roadsides by the insurgents.