NAIROBI, July 23 (AFP) - All four of Kenya`s major daily newspapers on Friday pleaded for the release of the country`s three nationals kidnapped in Iraq, insisting that Kenya was not part of the western military presence there.
The four main dailies splashed frontpage headlines with pictures of weeping relatives, with calls for the release of the hostages taken this week, as the the east African nation`s government ordered Kenyans in Iraq to leave immediately.
"Kenya, for one, has no troops or known companies doing business there (in Iraq) on behalf of the United States or any other country that was militarily involved in the Second Gulf War," the East African Standard newspaper said in an editorial headlined: "Spare Kenyans, we were not in the war."
"Kenyans working in Iraq are adventurous individuals who saw an opportunity and seized it, and are, therefore, not part of any military front," the paper said of the three hostages, seized by the militant group on Wednesday.
"The foreign ministry should take the diplomatic challenge to rescue the hostages, even if it means involving Muslim leaders who met on Thursday over the incident," the paper urged.
The opposition Kenya African National Union (KANU) Kenya Times newspaper also called for the "saving of Kenyan hostages," but warned that "there is need to fight terrorists in the world, hence conditions set by such terrorists should not be honoured because succumbing to their demands emboldens them."
"The sad scenario, however, is that when these ruthless militants give conditions for the release of their hostages, the public tends to pile pressure on the governments of the hostages," the paper said.
"It is exactly in this kind of situation the Philippines government found itself," the paper pointed out, in reference to an earlier release of a Filippino hostage by another Iraqi militant group.
The People daily wondered why Kenya "always finds itself in the muddle of international disputes, be they to do with the war against terrorism, or as in the latest incident, the war in Iraq."
"Yet, Kenya was among the first the first to condemn the decision by the US and its allies to launch war against Saddam Hussein`s regime, especially as they bypassed the UN Security Council," it said.