Somali recruits unfit for training deported from Kenya

Kenya has deported 17 Somali recruits who were unfit to complete their police training at a Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) camp, officials confirmed here Wednesday.

A KWS spokesperson Connie Maina said 11 of them were suffering from old war wounds and the others found the training course too strenuous.

"Eleven of those affected were declared unfit to continue with the course while six voluntarily gave up training, saying it was too strenuous," said Maina.

The recruits, who arrived in the Somali provincial town of Baidoa, about 240 km southwest of Mogadishu on Tuesday, were among 200 former militia fighters selected to pioneer a new police force for the war-torn country.

Maina's comments were echoed by an official at the Somali Liaison Office in Nairobi who said the 17 militias were unfit to take part in the training.

"They were found to be unfit for training and were returned back. This is a small issue and will not affect the ongoing training," an official who sought anonymity said by telephone.

Sources cited conflicting reports about why the recruits were expelled, with some suggestions that it was because of indiscipline after a fight.

But the KWS said that most of the recruits were sent home because they have bullets lodged in their legs.

The recruits are expected to join the first police officers from northeast and south Somalia to be trained in decades who graduated last week from the recently established Armo Police Academy in Puntland, northern part of the Horn of Africa nation thus forming the basis for what the government hopes will swell to a 12,000-strong force.

The 154 cadets, of whom 19 are female, became the first home- trained police in the country since it lapsed into anarchy 15 years ago.

The police officers are currently deployed to serve in Baidoa, where the Extraordinary Session of the Somali Transitional Federal Parliament is currently taking place, as well as newly constructed police stations for the protection of internally displaced persons in Garowe and Bossaso.

The Horn of Africa nation has been without effective government since 1991 when the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled. At least 13 attempts at forming one have failed.

Source: Xinhua