Kenyan authorities on Thursday blamed proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons in Eastern Africa on weak legislations and called for tougher action to regulate the flow of the deadly weapons.
Attorney-General Amos Wako said the proliferation of deadly weapons, which is rampant in Africa, fuel conflicts and hinders development by creating an environment of fear and insecurity.
Wako said Kenya which is an oasis of peace in the region has suffered greatly from an astronomical proliferation of illicit weapons even with enhanced surveillance along its borders with neighboring countries ravaged by civil wars and strife.
"Kenya will be contributing directly to the enforcement of measures aimed at controlling the availability and use of small arms and light weapons in the country," Wako told a regional workshop of legal experts in Nairobi.
He called on governments and civil society to work proactively and effectively together to address the problem of arms at each level -- stemming the source of the supply, and addressing the root causes of why people possess arms in insecurity environments.
"Innovative and effective ways must be found to control and restrict the flow of small arms and light weapons to ensure that these destructive weapons do not fall into the wrong hands and do not worsen potential or ongoing conflicts," he said.
Wako said global action needs to be directed at the nature of flows of these weapons and not on the weapons themselves.
Sub-Saharan Africa alone is reported to have close to 30 million weapons in circulation, the vast majority of which are in private hands.
A proliferation of machine guns, rifles, grenades, pistols and other small arms has caused the deaths of millions of civilians in Africa and the displacement of millions more.
In April 2004, 11 countries from the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa region signed an agreement in Kenya to combat illicit manufacturing, trafficking and use of small arms in the sub region.
The states that signed the declaration called for the destruction and disposal of these weapons.
The Nairobi Protocol which was signed in 2004 obliges signatories -- Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda and Tanzania -- to take concrete action, including passing legislation, to back up earlier more abstract pledges.
Source: Xinhua
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