Eight years ago, on July 5, 2012, Kenya re- hatted its troops pursuing the al-Shabaab militants in southern Somalia, placing them under the command of the UN-sanctioned African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). As the well-chosen title suggests, the book tells the story of the Kenyan military’s quest for peace. It is this search for peace that led Kenya to join the continent’s war against violent extremism and to restore peace and stability in Somalia. The book offers a strategic level analysis of the role, achievements and challenges, capturing lessons learned from the participation of the Kenyan troops in AMISOM.

The book is dedicated to the Kenyan men and women in the African Mission in Somalia who defended the territory and sovereignty of Kenya with great courage and patriotism and sacrificed their lives in the fight for a peaceful and prosperous Africa.

In this regard, the book has an insightful Foreword by H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya and Commander-in-Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces, which sheds light on the book’s analytic approach. It also has a Preface by the Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Defence, Ambassador (Dr.) Monica K. Juma an Author’s Preface by the out-going Chief of Defence Forces, General Samson Mwathethe and an Epilogue, literally “the last word”, by the incoming CDF, General Robert K. Kibochi.

KDF is indebted to its panel of experts and consultants who prepared the book. The team comprised of Professor Kagwanja as the Chief Editor and Brigadier Stephen Mutuku James as Assistant Chief Editor supported by a strong editorial team (Colonel Paul Njuguna, Colonel Njoroge Gitogo, Colonel Ahmed Saman, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Imbiakha, Lieutenant Colonel David Kwach and Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Muguro).

In a nutshell, the book contains 12 chapters clustered around four parts.

• Part 1 briefly traces the emergence of the Kenya Defence Forces as a force for peace in the region and globally firmly rooted in the values and institutional culture of discipline, professional ethics and genuine patriotism. As a modern military, the KDF won the Shifta campaign, successfully defending Kenya’s territory and sovereignty in the 1960s. Subsequently, it took part in international peacekeeping from the 1970s and defended the humanitarian space and Kenya’s peace efforts from the early 1990s. After September 11, 2001 the Kenya military has fought against the al-Shabaab militia as the new face of Jihadi Islamism in the Horn of Africa.
• Part 2 explores Kenya’s role in the African peace support operation in Somalia as part of Africa’s new collective approach to security. Specifically, chapters under this section examine achievements and lessons learned from the participation of Kenyan troops in the war for peace in Somalia. One of these achievements discussed is the use of humanitarian and development approaches to brunt the edge of negative nationalism, win the hearts and minds of local Somali people and neutralize the asymmetric threat posed by the al-Shabaab.
• Part 3 highlights the challenges that have confronted Kenya’s military in AMISOM. While Kenyan forces were trained in the ‘art of war’, in the battlefronts of Somalia it confronted the ‘art of lies’ in the form of false allegations of involvement in trade in all manner of items. The book aptly calls this the “war on truth” as a new challenge facing peace support operations in the complex theatres of war. Defeated and rooted out of major areas, al-Shabaab sharpened its art of terrorism. The militia launched attacks on AMISOM bases with the aim of generating news and publicity to sway public opinion against African peacekeepers. The section also examines the impact of new geo-political shifts and rivalries in the Horn on the policy environment in which KDF and AMISOM are operating.
• Part 4 examines the growing pressure on AMISON to exit Somalia, highlighting the need for far-reaching consultations to ensure that Somalia does not fall back to extremists after AMISOM leaves, thus rolling back the gains made so far in securing peace and stability.

The book is easy to access, read and navigate. This is aided by a comprehensive list of abbreviations and acronyms; bibliography, maps, pictures, index and appendices. The book is published in both hard and soft covers. It is a must- read for practitioners and students of military history and strategy as well as international studies.