NAIROBI, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Diplomats accredited to Kenya have voiced strong concern over rising wave of crime in the east African country, warning that continued insecurity is a drawback to democratic gains.
African and Western diplomats have appealed to the Kenyan authorities to stem rising insecurity in the country, warning that continued lack of personal safety was an obstacle to democratic elections due this year.
Kenya is preparing for presidential and parliamentary elections in December this year but the slaying of foreign nationals, senior civil servants, a university don and a top-ranking civil society advocate in the past two weeks in unrelated gun crime has sent cold shivers across.
Mozambican High Commissioner Marcos Namashulu said the escalating insecurity in the country was a key point that some European countries were using to lobby for the relocation of crucial United Nations agencies headquartered in Nairobi .
Namashulu, the Dean of the African diplomatic Corps, said African nations would not relent in their crusade to have UN agencies, currently located in Kenya , to remain permanently stationed in the country.
"We would like to appeal to Kenyan government to address the rising insecurity in the country. This is why some European nations want the UNEP to be relocated from Nairobi and we would not like to see this happen," said Namashulu during a luncheon hosted by Kenyan foreign affairs ministry on Thursday.
Namashulu said Kenyan authorities should tackle insecurity, saying it was an issue of concern to the foreign diplomatic corps.
The United States, which has told its citizens to think carefully about visiting Kenya because of an upsurge in violent crime saying authorities had a limited capacity to deal with the vice, has also backed the position taken by the African envoys.
"Insecurity is a real plague on this country. This is a major issue which we think must be addressed seriously by the top government officials," said U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger after attending the burial of an embassy employee Saturday.
The U.S. employee was murdered outside Nairobi while driving home on Monday. He was traveling with his son, who was also murdered. The two ran into a roadblock mounted by a wanted criminal who shot them dead.
The incident came two weeks after two Americans, an elderly mother of a U.S. embassy staff and a fellow workmate, were killed in a car-jacking incident.
The U.S. envoy lamented that the rising insecurity in the country was making it difficult for foreigners to move around because the gun crime was so much on the rise.
"It is difficult to move around at any time of the day. Personal security is becoming an issue of concern in an election year," the U.S. envoy told journalists late Saturday.
The escalating insecurity is threatening the safety of foreign diplomats and has become a "plague" on the East African country, eroding the gains made in efforts to enhance personal freedoms and democracy, one western envoy said on Sunday.
There have been an increasing number of reports of attacks on diplomats or their families in the past six months.
In September, a U.S. embassy official was shot in the chest, and a month earlier, a Russian ambassador was stabbed while on the roadside attending to a sick grandchild. Carjackings of Kenyans and foreigners are common in Nairobi , where gangsters pounce on people for cash, bank cards, mobile phones or cars. Rapes are also common during the robberies.
Meanwhile, Washington will consider revising the five-year travel ban to Kenya after proper steps are taken to stem in security, particularly around Nairobi , Ranneberger said.
Ambassador Ranneberger said the U.S had issued a revised travel warning but this would eventually be lifted once "decisive steps" are taken to end insecurity.
"The insecurity around Nairobi is reaching a point where it is becoming a national security problem but up to this point, we have seen a desire to dismiss the problem or play it down. It is a big problem particularly in an election year," he said.
The travel advisory comes on the heels of several high-profile carjackings.
A regional director for the aid agency CARE was killed on Jan.26, two American women related to a U.S. embassy employee were killed on Jan. 27, a top Kenyan AIDS researcher was killed Feb. 4,and an American woman traveling with him was shot in the face.
Kenyan officials frequently complain about the U.S. travel advisory, which they say hurts the country's tourism industry, one of the East African nation's largest moneymakers.
Kenyan officials were not immediately available for comment. Kenyan citizens are by far the most frequent victims of violent crime.
Three other Kenyans were killed by the same gang that killed the AIDS researcher on Feb. 4. Kenya's police commissioner, Hussein Ali, has claimed that violent crime has dropped in recent years, but few outside the government believe the statistics are accurate.
