Threats: Why Kenya and Europe are safer together

By  Andreas Peschke

EU Ambassador to Kenya

European Union

Listen to this article

6 min

Before dawn, a fisherman pushes off from Lamu. A clearing agent in Mombasa is waiting for a shipment of fertiliser. In Kisumu, a young woman takes orders for clothes on her phone and is paid through M-Pesa. Outside Mandera, a soldier sets out on patrol, watching the road for signs of buried bombs. Any one of them could lose their livelihood or their life to a gunman, a trafficker or a hacker.

I first came to Kenya as a diplomat over a decade ago. I was here in April 2015, when Al-Shabaab killed 148 people at Garissa University College, most of them students. The college reopened nine months later, and that refusal to be cowed has stayed with me. Now I'm back as the EU's ambassador, convinced that Kenyans and Europeans are safer together.

Kenya works on security and defence with the EU and with many of its 27 member states. Our office in Nairobi opened 50 years ago. Today, security and defence form one of three strands of the Strategic Dialogue that Kenya and the EU launched in 2021.

The most persistent threat is Al-Shabaab, which has repeatedly attacked communities in Garissa, Wajir, Lamu and Mandera, and those sent to protect them. An ambush on a border patrol in July killed at least five security personnel. Kenyan soldiers have served with African Union missions in Somalia since 2012, alongside Somali forces and troops from across the continent. I pay tribute to their courage and to the sacrifice of those who never came home.

Protect patrols

Since last year's talks, the EU has approved its first equipment package for the Kenya Defence Forces. Worth about KSh3 billion, it is mainly for troops facing Al-Shabaab on the Somali border and for the Kenya Navy. It includes surveillance drones, kit to protect patrols from roadside bombs, a mobile field clinic, night-vision goggles and life jackets, none of it designed to kill.

Away from the front line, the EU-backed National Counter Terrorism Centre leads Kenya's efforts to stop Al-Shabaab from finding recruits. It has also made Nairobi a regular meeting place for officials and experts from across Africa.

More than 200 came last year to work out how to keep militants from slipping across borders. In September, as many again met to discuss protecting railways, ports, power and water supplies from terrorist attacks.

The clearing agent's living depends on ships arriving safely. Piracy off Somalia is back, a decade after international naval patrols all but stamped it out. In April, pirates seized a ship carrying about 4,500 tonnes of fertiliser to Mombasa for Kenyan farmers. Its crew were released in September, after more than four months in captivity.

Patrols cannot stop every attack, as that hijacking shows. But the EU's naval force, Operation Atalanta, has been tackling piracy, and the Kenya Navy and Coast Guard train alongside it. On 5 April, Atalanta warships and aircraft helped force pirates to abandon a hijacked fishing boat off northern Somalia. Last November, the EU and Kenya jointly held Usalama Baharini exercise in Mombasa, which brought together sailors, prosecutors and others from 10 Kenyan agencies.

Traffickers use the same waters, and in October 2025 the Kenya Navy seized more than a tonne of crystal meth, working with Interpol and regional intelligence centres under an EU-funded maritime security programme. If anyone gets into trouble at sea, the Kenya Maritime Authority can now call on five search-and-rescue boats supplied by the EU.

Cyber-attack

For the young woman in Kisumu, the danger is online: her business runs on her phone. In July 2023, a cyber-attack disrupted eCitizen, cutting many Kenyans off from government services. If the networks she relies on were hit, she could be left unable to take orders or get paid. In January, Kenya's ICT ministry and the EU launched a three-year project to help Kenyan cyber-security teams head off such attacks and respond faster. It will set up a system for agencies to share intelligence on threats and run drills using simulated attacks.

All of this rests on values Kenya and the EU share.

Like Kenya, Europe depends on safe sea routes and has a stake in breaking up cross-border criminal and terrorist networks. When the Kenya Navy stops a drug boat, its cargo may never reach Europe. Europeans also learn from Kenya: in the Global Counterterrorism Forum, which the EU co-chairs, Kenya helps lead the East Africa group, sharing lessons it has learnt at great cost.

Tomorrow before dawn, the fisherman will push off from Lamu again, and the soldier outside Mandera will set out on another patrol. The clearing agent will be at the port, and the young woman in Kisumu will reach for her phone.

None of them will be thinking about diplomats. But what Kenya and the EU do together can help all four get through the day safely. That is what we are going to discuss at our EU-Kenya Security and Defence Dialogue. And that is also part of the work I came back to do.

Follow our WhatsApp channel for breaking news updates and more stories like this.