NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Kenya has denied Muslim allegations that Ethiopian and U.S. troops were operating in northern Kenya, The Daily Nation reported Monday.
The leaders of Muslim organizations in Kenya, at a meeting in Nairobi Sunday, had alleged the troops were in the country in preparation for a war against Somalia's powerful Union of Islamic Courts militia.
"There are no foreign troops in this country and there has never been at any time, even during the shifta (bandit) aggression between Kenya and Somalia," Foreign Affairs Assistant Minister Moses Wetang'ula said.
"Kenya has never been used as a launching ground for aggression of any of its neighbors, neither has Kenya aggressed any neighbor and we are not about to change that tradition."
The Muslim leaders, in a statement, had claimed the foreign troops had been sited in towns such as Moyale, Isilolo, Wajir and Garrissa.
Kenya, a U.S. ally, is helping mediate the war between the UIC and Somalia's Transitional Federal Government.
