Kenya in the "War on Terrorism"

In my previous post on monuments in Nairobi, I did not mention the August 7th Memorial for the 1998 American Embassy bombing. It's a small park in downtown Nairobi where the old American embassy once stood. There's an information center about the events of that day, with horrific pictures and pointed text.

(Unfortunately, while the information center does create a pretty moving depiction of that day, its displays have a number of embarrasing misspellings, awkward phrasings, as well as highly pixelated photographs.)

Since the bombing, Kenya has been a major ally in America's global war on Al Qaeda and its followers and sympathizers.

Recently, the Kenyan government has turned over a terror suspect to the American government, which sent him to Guantanamo Bay. He is believed to be involved in a 2002 terrorist bombing of a Mombasa Hotel as well as the attempted downing of an Israeli airliner.

Prompts some interesting questions:

1) Why wasn't he tried by the Kenyan government for the crimes he committed on Kenyan soil?

2) Why was he transferred to the American government? The Israeli government would seem to have greater jurisdiction, considering a number of its civilians were killed and its airliner was targeted. Or do Americans now have jurisdiction over all Al Qaeda terrorist suspects everywhere?

There's also allegations that the U.S. is operating a secret prison in Ethiopia and that Kenya has sent suspects there to be interrogated by U.S. agents. Ethiopia has admitted holding 41 terror suspects there, and U.S. agents admit that they've done interrogations there, but denies it's a secret U.S.-run prison. (here and here)

Egypt's now recalling its teachers from Kenya, afraid that they'll be accused of being terror suspects.