CIA activities in Kenya Kenya 1971 . Intelligence Analysis . The CIA - produced National Intelligence Estimate of October 7 , 1971 , stated that : Kenya 1976 . Intelligence analysis . Kenya ' s government was described as increasingly concerned over the possibility of war between Uganda and Somalia , as well as either country making war on Kenya . Both countries have territorial claims on land considered part of Kenya . While the United Kingdom has , in the past , been allied with Kenya , Nairobi does not expect British assistance in the event of war . Kenyan relations with Uganda , under Idi Amin , have steadily declined since he took power in 1971 , but have gotten much worse recently . There have been local penetrations by Uganda into Kenya , and Kenya responded with economic sanctions . U . S . intelligence believes that Uganda , with larger forces well equipped by the Soviet Union , would have an initial advantage , but the superior discipline and training of the Kenyan military would be significant in a prolonged struggle . A possibility of long - term occupation of Kenyan terrain , however , remains of concern . The Kenyan government believes there is a danger of war between Somalia and Ethiopia , with the " casus belli " being the French Territory of the Afars and Issas , from which France is withdrawing . Kenya does have a mutual defense pact with Ethiopia , who are facing a larger Somali force , again equipped by the Soviets . The analysts believed that Kenya would not want to do more than reinforce its border , although U . S . intelligence also believed Somalia would not launch a full - scale attack against Kenya unless the territorial issue with Ethiopia was resolved . Somalia can encourage an insurgency in northwest Kenya , which Kenya can control . If , however , Kenya and Somalia go to war , Uganda would be likely to open a second Kenyan front to exploit the situation . Neither Uganda nor Somalia , however , have the logistical capability to sustain a long - term push . Covert action . Two papers dealing with Kenya , dated October 26 , 1976 and Washington , November 11 , 1976 , were noted in the " Foreign Relations of the United States " volume , but not declassified . Both were documents of the groups that approve covert action . Kenya 1998 . Counterintelligence . According to the " New York Times " , United States Department of State officials confirmed that they had been warned , approximately nine months before the 1998 United States embassy bombings in near - simultaneous car bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capital cities of Dar es Salaam , Tanzania and Nairobi , Kenya . The attacks were linked to al Qaeda . The warning came from an Egyptian named Mustafa Mahmoud Said Ahmed , who had come into the w Nairobi embassy in November 1997 , and said he knew of a plot to set off a bomb inside the embassy ' s underground garage . He told Kenyan intelligence officers that he had already taken photographs of the embassy . After the attacks , British officials confirmed he had visited their Dar es Salaam embassy and offered to help Tanzanian officials arrested him . Security was increased for a time after the warning , but then relaxed . The warning contained a caveat that a cooperative third - country intelligence service considered Ahmed unreliable , but the report also said that Ahmed ' s claim could have been completely true , or possibly a provocation to cause the embassy security measures to be more visible to the attack planners . There was no confirmation of Ahmed ' s background , who claimed to have grown up in Zaire , gone to college in Egypt , worked for Kuwait , and came to Kenya as a gem dealer for Taba Investments , a company set up by Osama bin Laden . ( See CIA activities regarding terrorist financing with gems . ) He was reported to have passports from Egypt , Yemen and Zaire . Ahmed said he met bin Laden in Sudan .