John Kerry addresses regional security issues in Kenya

By Andrew Wasike and Magdalene Mukami.

NAIROBI, Kenya

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held meetings with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta Monday in Nairobi to discuss regional security, with a focus on South Sudan and Somalia.

They discussed ways to partner in order to deal with the Somalia-based al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabab militant group, which on April 2, 2015, was responsible for the deaths of more than 140 students in Garissa University in Northern Kenya.

"Our meetings were fruitful and focused on the future of Somalia and South Sudan. In East Africa and Kenya, we are still faced with the challenge of violent extremism," Kerry said.

"Al-Shabab is a regional problem that needs a solution, we must fight to ensure they don't resurrect, we want to ensure that African Union Mission in Somalia [AMISOM] has the resources that it needs in order to conduct in partnership with Somalia a sustained and relentless fight against al-Shabab," he said.

Kerry asserted that even though it will help fund AMISOM, "the U.S. aid cannot be permanent, the war must stop."

"The success of the electoral process depends on the support from the international community and partners,” Kenyan President Kenyatta said of elections that are due to take place on Oct. 30 in the war-torn country.

Kenyatta also lamented that the recent skirmishes in South Sudan, had "serious implications for the implementation of the Peace Agreement signed in August 2015" and that both parties have been slow in implementing the pact due to lack of commitment.

A peace deal was reached last August and a transitional government of national unity was formed in April by President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, ex-first vice president, after tens of thousands of people were killed in fighting, and over 2 million people were rooted from their homes since December 2013.

In early July, fighting broke out again between troops loyal to both men in Juba, in a move the international community said would return the young nation back to an all-out civil war; 300 died in the fighting, which the UN said involved targeted ethnic killings and rapes, mostly by soldiers loyal to Kiir.

Kerry called on both parties in South Sudan to implement the peace pact, he said that a force will be deployed in the South Sudanese capital Juba to help prevent violence and help the return to peace.

He said that the U.S. will provide $138 million to South Sudan to aid in the purchase of food, water and medicine but also warned that this will not be a long-term aid.

Regarding Kenya's elections next year, Kerry said the U.S. will provide $25 million to help in the electoral process to ensure that violence is not witnessed again.

He told the media that President Kenyatta had assured him of peaceful elections to come in 2017.

"We want to strengthen your election operations, we want you to have the ability to carry out peaceful elections and observations, we want to see the full participation of women and youth in the elections and that there are mechanisms to support any kind of dispute," Kerry said.

The outcome of the 2007 Kenyan elections saw violence that claimed the lives of an estimated 1,300 people, injured thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands.