In 2010, it was feared that Al Shabaab could have assembled an Improvised Explosive Chemical Devices (IECD) though there intelligence experts doubted if the jihadists had the expertise & capability to design and use one.
Intelligence shows a Kenyan University graduate who studied related course and is sympathetic to the Somali based Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen is mulling designing and deploying an IECD.
Most countries including the West are not prepared to counter Improvised Explosive Chemical Device better known as IECD.
Improvised Explosive Chemical Device
Al Shabaab has engineers tasked with designing and assembling powerful IED’s. The IECD strategy focuses on attacks on crowded areas.
Detecting such a device is a challenge. The jihadists Improvised Explosive Chemical Devices can detonate a poisonous gas or bacteria, or even a massive explosion chemically triggered if sophistically made and detonated.
Al-Qaeda has used these devices and in return passed the knowledge to Al Shabaab to advance capability.
Various IEDs Which Al Shabaab Could Use to Launch Attacks
Use of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and nitromethane loaded on trucks and left to explode as in the Oklahoma City bombing.
Goma-2 ECO often stuffed in bags and set off from a distance using cell phones with timers can kill the population of a whole constituency depending on its strategic placement.
Coupled devices attached to a detonating cord could be used to conduct multiple explosions across a town or streets. Busy streets are prone to such attacks.
Al Shabaab could be capitalizing on boosted Improvised Explosive Chemical Devices. These are hard to detect using metal detectors. They are buried mines stacked on top of the other to increase the force of the blast.
Possibility of IECD Attacks in Kenya
Defected members of Al Shabaab militia confirm that Kenyans who joined Al Shabaab have been tasked to design these lethal weapons. They are set to ensure that security forces will not be able to detect them at checkpoints.
Planted booby traps which are designed to kill and incapacitate have the ability to explode, choke and are significantly volatile.
Kenyan recruits understand their targets which include recreational centers, learning institutions, odd cities, busy highways and gatherings.
What the Government is doing to counter Possible Al Shabaab Nuclear Attacks
Kenyan security experts have laid down tracking systems on suspected university graduates who are working with Al Shabaab.
These suspects may not be stationed in Somalia but are strategically placed, yet to act once instructed.
The government has established a special branch of the forces who are updating their training on combating and discharging these explosives.
This will ensure that the forces stop networks before emplacement of IEDs and safely disable them before explosion.
There is also an ongoing program on the use of wireless Morpho butterflies with sensors on their wings to detect the slightest explosive chemical.
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