In a move to stem the funding of militant Islamists, the Kenya’s government has ordered the closure of 13 money transfer firms.
Kenya’s Interior Minister, Joseph Nkaissery, told the BBC the bank accounts of 85 individuals and “entities” had also been frozen as part of actions being taken following the killing of 148 people at Kenya’s Garissa University last week by al-Shabab terrorists group.
The money transfer firms include Dahabshill, which has repeatedly denied links with militant Islamists. The 85 individuals and entities put on an officially published list had 24 hours to demonstrate why their bank accounts should not be frozen. The list is headed by Mohamed Kuno, a former Islamic school teacher in Garissa and the alleged mastermind of the university attack.
Most of Kenya’s Somali population live in the capital, Nairobi, and in the north-east, where the university attack took place.
Somalis say most of them are law-abiding citizens of Kenya, and they have also bore the brunt of al-Shabab’s insurgency. and they have condemned the government’s crackdown as “blanket punishment” of the community.
Somalis around the world rely heavily on the informal money transfer firms, known as “hawalas”, to do business and to send cash to relatives because of the almost non-existent banking sector in Somalia.
The United Nations estimates Somalis in the diaspora send home about $1.6bn (£1.1bn) annually, significantly more than foreign aid.
More than 40% of Somalis receive remittances, the bulk of which are used for basic needs, including food, clothes, medicine and education, according to a UN survey.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since the fall of Siad Barre’s government in 1991, and has been hit by religious and clan conflicts.
