Somalia rubbishes Kenyan media reports on NISA as ‘false and disparaging’‏

Somalia has dismissed as ‘false and misleading information’ reports in a section of the media in Kenya that its intelligence agency was involved in covert activities aiding the militant group Al-Shabaab.

The Ministry of Information said in a statement the articles carried by The Star and The Standard held no water but were ‘disparaging and misleading.’

“The Federal Government of Somalia rejects this type of malicious attacks, and smear campaigns targeting the government and its agencies,” the statement read in part.

Noting that the national spy agency NISA was committed to the war against Al-Shabaab, the government said it ‘takes offense to the disparaging news that is circulating throughout social media in an attempt to demean the agency’.

An official from the money transfer company TAAJ which was mentioned by the two newspapers as being a conduit for transfer of funds by a NISA official to Al-Shabaab rubbished the claims noting the supposed receipt was ‘fabricated’.

“That receipt is fake; it appears that it has been doctored." He went on to say that the existence of the dubious receipt has been known to senior TAAJ officials for nearly two weeks now,” an official from TAAJ who sought anonymity told HOL Friday.