The calls for the military to leave Somalia started in 2014 following terrorist attacks on Kenyan soil with the opposition Cord and civil society groups leading it.
Even though the talk of withdrawal has subsided, President Uhuru Kenyatta in May threatened to pull out Kenyan forces from Somalia.
As the Kenya Defence Forces marks five years in Somalia, experts are still divided over whether Kenya should withdraw its forces.
According to Dr Ochieng’ Kamudhayi, a security and conflict expert, the military has no choice but to leave Somalia.
“We have had several windows for withdrawal. One window would have been after the El Adde attack though that would have looked bad on Kenya as it would have been seen as giving in to the terrorists. “But right now they have to find a way to exit,” Dr Kamudhayi told Sunday Nation.
According to the expert, there are two options: the first is to use the maritime boundary case before the International Court of Justice in which Somalia wants the maritime boundary with Kenya redrawn as a pretext for a withdrawal.
The second is to shift the bases the soldiers occupy and use that to quietly withdraw.
“It seems we never had an exit strategy. Perhaps they thought they would just go into Somalia and vanquish the Al-Shabaab easily then come back,” he said.
Yet another security expert, Mr Simiyu Werunga, takes a different view and argues that there are a number of considerations that Kenya has to make before withdrawing.