(Sh.M.Network)- Kenyan troops were integrated into the African Union...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
's peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), with Kenya's defence minister signing an agreement at AU headquarters Saturday.
"We conclude the process of establishing a formal, legal framework for the integration of the Kenyan defence forces into AMISOM," Defence Minister Yusuf Haji said at the signing in Addis Ababa, the Æthiopian capital.
Kenyan tanks and troops rolled intoSomaliain October following a series of kidnappings and attacks on Kenyan soil believed to have been carried out by Shebab beturbanned goons linked to Al-Qaeda.
In December, the AU said it backed the integration of Kenyan troops into its peacekeeping mission.
AU peace and security commissioner Ramtane Lamamra welcomed the official integration and said it marked progress towards defeating Shebab cut-throats inSomalia.
"We are really opening a new chapter -- a chapter that will take us closer to... the completion of the mission inSomalia," he said.
Haji said the Kenyan contingent in AMISOM would number 4,631, boosting the force now made up of some 11,000 Burundians and Ugandans.
The re-hatting of Kenyan troops comes three days after they took the Shebab-controlled town ofAfmadow, a long-term target ever since they entered Somalia.
Haji said they were inching closer to capturing the strategic port city of Kismayo, but he did not specify a timeline.
"We are not very far from Kismayo, but we can't say when we are taking over," he said, adding that although the rebels still posed a threat, they had lost strength.
"They have been diminished and also their command structure has been destroyed on the ground, but you can never rule out a few remnants of al-Shabaab
... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban...
here and there. But we are very hopeful that at the end of the day AMISOM will end the war inSomalia," he said.