Endemic corruption and a lengthy border with lawless Somalia have made Kenya the top target in east Africa for drug runners and terrorists, a senior British official said.
In unusually blunt comments after visits to Nairobi and the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, foreign office minister Kim Howells said graft was rampant at virtually every level of the former British colony's society and government.
"People can be bought right from the person who works at the docks to the government," he told a small group of reporters late Thursday. "The weakness has been recognised by drug traffickers and probably by terrorists, too."
Howells, whose ministerial remit includes anti-narcotics and counter-terrorism efforts, said recent developments, including unrest in Somalia and huge drug seizures, illustrated the threat.
"We are very worried," he said of Somalia where a powerful religious movement accused of links with al Qaeda has taken over most of the southern and central parts of the country and is on the verge of war with the weak government.
Howells said there appeared to be a surge in al Qaeda activity in Somalia, calling the situation "very fragile" and "very volatile" with "very big implications" for regional and international security, notably in Kenya.
"Kenya has a long, porous border with what is probably the starkest example of a failed state in the world," he said. "There is a perception of the country (Kenya) being wide open and al Qaeda has a very close eye on this."
Last week, the United States warned that extremist elements in Somalia had threatened suicide attacks at "prominent landmarks" in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia, urging US citizens in the two countries to use "extreme caution."
While Britain did not issue a similar alert to its nationals, Howells said London took the matter "very seriously" because "there is definitely terrorist movement inside Kenya."
Al Qaeda operatives have hit Kenya twice in the past eight years, blowing up the US embassy in Nairobi, as well its embassy in Tanzania, in August 1998, and attacking an Israeli-owned coastal resort in November 2002.
In addition to the terror threat, Kenya has become a trans-shipment destination of choice for cocaine coming from Latin America and possibly heroin coming from Afghanistan, en route to Europe, Howells said.
"Tonnes of cocaine and heroin are being moved through here," he said. He said traffickers were moving "industrial quantities" of illicit narcotics through Kenya, noting the record December 2004 seizure of 1.3 tonnes of cocaine here and the 2002 arrests of Kenya Airways staff engaged in drug smuggling.
Howells said it was a certainty that such activity was continuing and lamented that pledges from Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki's government, elected in 2003 on a reform platform, to clean it up had not been met.
"Almost nothing has resulted from that," he said. "No arrests or significant legal action ... there is a huge sense of despondence. There is clearly complicity at very high levels in terms of arrests."
Howells said there were fears that traffickers may also be stockpiling large amounts of heroin and raw opium in Kenya, and perhaps Somalia, for distribution at a later time.
He noted that a recent surge in poppy production in Afghanistan appeared not to have influenced street prices in Europe, indicating the drug had not yet been put on the market. "Somewhere, people are storing huge amounts of heroin and opium base," he said.