Armed and insecure

of USD 16,305 in small arms ammunition to Somalia, as well as a 2013 sale to Ghana of
USD 434,846 (or 7.7 tons) in shotgun cartridges. 395
International Arms Control Mechanisms
For a nation with its diplomatic clout, Kenya’s record on international arms control
regimes is underwhelming. Despite being one of the seven ‘co-author’ nations that spearheaded
the process within the UN, Kenya has so far failed to even sign the Arms Trade Treaty, a stark
discrepancy between rhetoric and practice. Kenya has been a State Party to the Mine Ban
Treaty since 2001. 396 However, it has not joined the Convention on Conventional Weapons,
though it signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in December 2008—and has reportedly
been indicating its commitment to ratification ever since. 397 Unsurprisingly, Kenya has signed
and ratified the Nairobi Protocol, and in 2006 it signed the Geneva Declaration on Armed
Violence and Development. The nation has also signed and ratified the UN Firearms Protocol.
As regards its implementation of the UN small arms commitments under the Programme of
Action, Kenya was ranked 101 out of 159 Member States. 398 !
Spotlight: Diversion and illicit trafficking in the seat
of the Nairobi Protocol
The diversion and illicit trafficking of small arms and ammunition has been a
staple in Kenya for decades, and is a major contributor to its armed violence.
The headquarters for the region’s most important arms control agreement, as
the diplomatic seat of the Nairobi Protocol, Kenya has nonetheless struggled to
keep SALW away from the hands of violent individuals and groups. The Nairobi
Protocol for the Prevention, Control and Reduction of Small Arms and Light
Weapons in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa and Bordering States
was rendered legally binding in 2004 and entered into force in May 2006; it
currently has 15 members and, at least on paper, is among the world’s best small
arms control documents. 399 An intergovernmental organisation, RECSA (Regional
395 The largest volume of transactions went to the United States—between 2010 and 2013, over USD 1.1 million in ‘parts and accessories’ of various sorts of
firearms were shipped—though it is improbable that these were commercial sales, but they may have been related to AMISOM or US deployments in Africa.
396 Though “reporting that national legislation was in progress since 2004”, Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor, ‘Kenya, Mine Ban Policy’, www.themonitor.org/en-gb/reports/2016/kenya/mine-ban-policy.aspx.
397 Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor, ‘Kenya, Cluster Munitions Ban Policy’, www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2016/kenya/cluster-munition-ban-policy.aspx.
398 Small Arms Survey, ‘The Programme of Action Implementation Monitor (Phase 1)’, August 2012, www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/B-Occasionalpapers/SAS-OP30-PoAIM.pdf.
399 Burundi, CAR, Congo, DRC, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda: Small Arms
Survey, ‘Regional Centre on Small Arms in the Great Lakes Region, the Horn of Africa and Bordering States’, http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/tools/ro-poa/
profiles-of-regional-organizations/africa/recsa.html. For the protocol’s text, see Programme of Action Implementation Support System, ‘Nairobi Protocol’, www.
poa-iss.org/RegionalOrganizations/RECSA/Nairobi%20Protocol.pdf.
PAX ! Armed and insecure
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