Summary: Signatory Kenya has regularly expressed its intent to ratify the convention, but does not appear to have taken any steps toward that objective besides stakeholder consultations. It has participated in nearly all of the convention’s meetings and voted in favor of a UN resolution on the convention in December 2015.

Kenya is not known to have produced or transferred cluster munitions. It has denied an allegation that it used cluster munitions in Somalia in January 2016.

Policy

The Republic of Kenya signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

Kenya has regularly indicated its commitment to ratifying the convention but the precise status of ratification is not known.[1] In April and May 2015, Kenyan officials participated in workshops on the convention that discussed the support available to states that are ratifying or acceding to the convention. Previously, in 2011, Kenya said it was undertaking consultations on the convention.[2] In 2009 and 2010, Kenya said the Attorney General’s office was preparing the ratification package.[3]

On 7 December 2015, Kenya voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[4]

Kenya has indicated that specific national implementation legislation for the convention is unnecessary because under its constitution an international treaty automatically becomes part of domestic law once ratified. In 2013, Kenya said the 2010 constitution “provides that international treaties which Kenya has ratified form part of the national law.”[5]

Kenya participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and worked to achieve a strong convention text during the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[6]

Kenya participated in the convention’s First Review Conference in September 2015, but did not make any statements. It has attended every annual Meeting of States Parties of the convention, except in 2014. Kenya has participated in regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Kampala, Uganda in May 2015.[7]

Kenya is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Kenya is not known to have ever produced or transferred cluster munitions.

Cluster Munition Monitor has previously reported that Kenya is not known to have used or stockpiled cluster munitions.[8] However, there were allegations that Kenya used United Kingdom (UK)-produced BL-755 air-dropped cluster bombs in Somalia in January 2016.

On 24 January 2016, a Somali media outlet published a report on an alleged cluster munition attack in the Gedo region of Somalia.[9] It published photographs reportedly taken at the site of the attack that show dead livestock and the remnants of UK-made BL-755 cluster bombs and their submunitions. According to the article, the Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF) carried out the attack, reportedly against al-Shabaab, after Kenyan troops were forced to retreat from their base near the Somali border town of El Adde.

The Governor of Gedo region, Mohamed Abdi Kalil, accused the KDF of attacking the area around Bardere City, “using illegal cluster bombs.”[10] At the UN Security Council in February 2016, the United States (US) said it was “deeply disturbed by allegations” that Kenya attacked civilian areas in Somalia in January 2016, including “claims that cluster munitions were deployed in violation of international law.”[11] The US called for an investigation.

The UN investigated and reported to the Security Council on 9 May 2016, finding that:

In addition to civilian casualties, air strikes by the Kenyan military from 15 to 23 January in the Gedo region reportedly resulted in the killing of livestock and the destruction of water wells and houses. In this regard, allegations of cluster munitions were reported by the media and local communities. However, the Government of Kenya has officially denied them. Unexploded sub-munitions are reported to have been used by Al-Shabaab as improvised explosive devices during attacks. On 31 January, the Federal Government announced a committee to investigate the impact of the air strikes, but the committee has yet to begin its work.[12]

It is not possible on the basis of the above evidence for the Monitor to confirm the use of cluster munitions in January 2016, or to identify the responsible party. The Monitor has seen no evidence that non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in Somalia are using submunitions to create improvised explosive devices.