Kenya steps up drive to lock out al Shabaab from region

Kenya has stepped up efforts to close the “ideological border” with Somalia in a campaign aimed at ensuring the youth in the vast North Eastern Province are not lured to join al Shabaab, the Islamist group in Somalia. The al Shabaab, believed to have links with al Qaeda, is said to have been recruiting the youth in the region in a bid to annex the province and also subject it to the sharia law. According to the North Eastern Province Parliamentary Group, al Shabaab has been using Islamic religion as a bait to lure the youth into joining the group which has wreaked havoc in Somalia and threatened regional security. It has also capitalised on the nature of its organisation – a movement by the youth to entice the young men of the region. Secretary to the Parliamentary Group Abdikadir Mohammed yesterday told the Sunday Nation the role of the civic education programme was to delink activities of al Shabaab from the religion. “We want our youth to get it clearly that al Shabaab does not have anything to do with Islamic religion and that they should not be involved in the war in Somalia,” he said. But even besides religion, the group has targeted the youth since the way of life in the region is not different from that in Somalia. Mr Mohammed said key among the teachings that are being conducted was the fact that the unrest witnessed in Somalia was a political and not religious battle. The civic education trainers are conducting their sessions in mosques, madrasas and other social gatherings.
Ten young men from each district have been selected to join hands with local councillors and spiritual leaders to speak to communities in the region on the issues of peace, terrorism and religion. “This kind of education will only be effective if the youth are involved at every stage in the programmes,” said Mr Mohammed. But a major challenge facing the programme and the eventual crash of the terror group in North Eastern Province is that residents along the porous Somalia-Kenya border come from the same clan. This, the PG said, will make it hard to differentiate who belongs to al Shabaab and who does not.The PG noted the provincial administration and the police had also been asked to participate in the campaign. “Although our greatest fear is that the political turmoil in the troubled Somalia may spill over to the province, we have taken the civic education as a proactive measure,” said Mr Mohammed.Earlier this year, the al Shabaab abducted two Italian nuns from the border area, sending Kenya’s top security men into discussions on how to stop the incursions. The country is also said to have been marshalling troops in the northern region to secure its border with the war-torn Somalia since then. Earlier in the year, a top police official was quoted as saying al Shabaab had officially communicated to the government that “they would stop at nothing, including armed conflict, to invade the province and make it part of their country and rule it using their religious laws”.
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