Clear and present danger from Somalia

The threat of the fighting in Somalia spilling over into Kenya continues to build up as militias extend tentacles into North Eastern Province. Al Shabaab is reaching across the border for sympathisers and recruits, the chaos in Somalia is spilling over, fuelling a climate of suspicion in Kenya’s remote northeastern region. Western security agencies say Somalia has become a haven for foreign jihadists and local Islamist militants linked to Al Qaeda who are plotting attacks across the region and beyond. Incidents along the border, of arrests of suspected militia trying to cross over, prove the insurgents eye Kenya for help.Somalis fleeing the civil war are crossing the poorly policed border into Kenya at a rate of 7,000 a month.That has piled pressure on the Government and aid agencies to shelter them, and has also seen the emergence of groups that local security officials say are linked to Somalia’s rebels.Police said 10 young Kenyan men were arrested last month after being recruited by two bogus charities to go to Somalia and fight for Al Shabaab militants. Washington describes Al Shabaab as al Qaeda’s proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state.
Insurgent groupsSomalia’s United Nations-backed administration is battling several insurgent groups including al Shabaab. It controls just pockets of the central region and a few parts of the capital Mogadishu.Sheikh Abdullahi Dahir Shurie, a respected Muslim cleric in north-eastern Kenya’s Ijara district, said it was upsetting that so many Kenyan youths had been "misled" into believing fighting for the rebels in Somalia was a religiously sanctioned jihad."Some have been recruited, others were killed there," he said. "We must protect those who remain and stop these lies."A Kenyan intelligence officer who declined to be named said last month’s arrests in Eastleigh, with a high population of Somali people, were made after months of investigation.Humanitarian relief He said the officials in charge of both "charities", which purported to provide humanitarian relief in Somalia, had fled."We took our time, gathered information in Kenya and Somalia and interviewed communities who are supposed to be assisted (by the charities)," the officer told Reuters. "But they all said the two organisations were owned and operated by al Shabaab and were used to raise funds and co-ordinate their activities."..MORE..http://www.eastandard.net/archives/InsidePage.php?id=1144023174&cid=4
Somali chaos spills into Kenya