Kenya

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 13 September 2021

Summary

Signatory Kenya has pledged to ratify the convention but has not taken any steps to do so. It last participated in a meeting of the convention in 2016. Kenya voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting universalization of the convention in December 2020.

Kenya is not known to have produced or imported cluster munitions and has not indicated if it possesses any stocks. Kenya denied an allegation that its air force used cluster munitions in 2016.

Policy

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

Kenya expressed its intent to ratify the convention several times until 2013 but does not appear to have taken any steps since then to ratify besides undertake internal consultations on the matter.[1] In 2009 and 2010, Kenya said the Attorney General’s office was preparing the ratification package.[2]

Kenya has not undertaken any specific national implementing legislation for the convention.[3]

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.[4]

Kenya last participated in a meeting of the convention in September 2016.[5] It was invited, but did not attend, the first part of the convention’s Second Review Conference held virtually in November 2020.

In December 2020, Kenya voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urged states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[6] Kenya has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

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

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Kenya is not known to have ever produced cluster munitions. Kenya has not indicated if it has imported and stockpiled cluster munitions.[7]

Use

There is no evidence to indicate that Kenya has used cluster munitions in recent years.

In May 2016, Kenya denied an allegation that it used air-delivered cluster munitions in neighboring Somalia, a State Party to the convention.[8] A UN investigation found that Kenyan forces conducted air strikes in Somalia’s Gedo region on 15–23 January 2016 but could not confirm if Kenya used cluster munitions during the attacks. Based on available evidence, the Monitor also could not conclusively determine if Kenya used cluster munitions during this incident.

The Monitor is not aware of any other evidence or allegations of cluster munition use by Kenya.

 


[1] Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) meeting with Kenneth Okoki Dindi, Director of Prosecution, Kenyan Defense Forces, Geneva, 6 September 2016; statement of Kenya, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Lusaka, 11 September 2013; statement of Kenya, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Accra, 28 May 2012; and statement of Kenya, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011.

[2] CMC meeting with the Kenyan delegation, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 9–12 November 2010. Notes by the CMC; and CMC meeting with Salim Mohamed Salim, Second Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Kenya to the UN in New York, 14 October 2009. Notes by the CMC.

[3] In 2012, Kenya said the 2010 constitution “provides that international treaties which Kenya has ratified form part of the national law.” Statement of Kenya, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012. Notes by the CMC.

[4] For details on Kenya’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 102–103.

[5] Previously, Kenya attended meetings of States Parties in 2011–2016, the First Review Conference in 2015, and regional workshops on the convention.

[6]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 75/62, 7 December 2020.

[7] Kenya is reported to possess Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads. International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), The Military Balance 2011 (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 429.

[8] UN Security Council (UNSC), “Report of the Secretary-General on Somalia (S/2016/430),” 9 May 2016, p. 10, para. 51. Somali media reported that cluster munitions were used in the Gedo region of Somalia in January 2016 and published photographs reportedly taken at the site of the attack that showed dead livestock and the remnants of United Kingdom (UK)-made BL755 cluster bombs and their submunitions. See, “Losses shelling forces arrested Gedo and Juba,” Calanka Media, 24 January 2016. See also, “Sawirro: Kenya Oo Qaaday Weerar Culus Oo Aar goosi Ah!!,” (‘‘Kenya launches deadly retaliatory attack’’), Raacdo, 24 January 2016.