Nairobi police anti-terror unit has to get by on US$735 a month

Kenya's lead counterterrorism agency is working to stop another Westgate Mall-style terrorist attack - which many in Nairobi believe Somali militants will try again - on a shoestring budget: the Anti-Terror Police Unit in the capital has just US$735 to spend this month.

Documents show that even after the September attack by al-Shabab on an upscale mall in Nairobi that killed at least 67 people, the country's top anti-terror security force is allocated only around US$2,205 for its operations - for maintenance and fuel for cars, travel expenses and office supplies - in January, February and March. By comparison, a Kenyan member of Parliament earns about US$45,000 in salary and allowances during a three-month period.

Kenya is facing a budgetary crisis brought on by high salaries paid to some government employees, its government has said. President Uhuru Kenyatta and his vice-president have each pledged to take a 20 per cent pay cut, and Kenyatta is urging other top government officials to do the same. Kenyatta also said more resources would be allocated to the police and military.

The anti-terror unit is struggling to do its work because of limited funds, said a security official from the police headquarters who insisted on anonymity. The limited budget makes preventing another attack difficult, he said.

The spokesman for Kenya's Internal Security Ministry, Mwenda Njoka, denied that Nairobi's anti-terror unit had been allocated only US$2,205 for the quarter. He did not provide any alternative figures.

Combating terrorism is a capital-intensive exercise because of the time and manpower needed to try to learn the identity of would-be attackers, the security official said. Somali terrorists are financing their terror attacks with more funds than Kenya is spending on the Anti-Terror Police Unit, the source said.

He cited an incident in September 2012 in which police stopped a planned attack on Parliament. A suspect was arrested in a house in a Somali section of Nairobi with four suicide vests, two improvised explosive devices, four AK-47 rifles and ammunition, the official said.