6th August, 2015
Kenya’s security agencies said they have intensified surveillance on social media in the fight against terrorism with specific focus on the youth.
National Counter Terrorism Centre Director, Isaac Ochieng, said a number of youths in Nairobi were spending several hours on terror-related websites for recruitment into extremist groups.
Ochieng told a forum on terrorism in Nairobi Tuesday night that those targeted were trooping to Syria where they have joined Islamic State (IS). “More than 20 Kenyan youths, most of them university students, have either flown or driven out of Nairobi headed to Syria in the past months.
“The rate of radicalisation is alarming and needs urgent measures to contain it,” said Ochieng.
Kenya has been a soft target for terrorist activities since 1998 and the menace has evolved as radical groups from the Horn of Africa infiltrate the country to kill and maim innocent civilians.
Security experts believe that the larger scale terror attacks at the Westgate Shopping mall in 2013 and in April at Garissa University confirmed that militants have found a safe haven in the East Africa’s largest economy.
According to Ochieng, the Surveillance on Internet usage shows the young people, especially in universities, spend long hours on terror-related websites learning various issues, including how they can join the groups.
He said most of those who were joining the terror groups thought it was fashionable to do so.
He said a combination of internet, peer pressure and religion also account for why young people are joining extremist organizations.
Ochieng said 100 youths who had crossed the country’s porous border to Somalia to join terror group Al-Shabaab have come back and surrendered to authorities.
He urged parents to always monitor the behaviour of their children and report to authorities when necessary. “When you find a son starting to question parents at home why they are behaving in a certain way or why their sisters are not covering their heads then, you know things have changed,” he said.
Participants observed that poverty, poor development and marginalisation also drive youths into the extremist groups.
Director of Criminal Investigations, Ndegwa Muhoro, said they have profiled those who have been reported to be missing or having joined the terror groups.
Kenya has been playing a pivotal role in ensuring that terrorism and other forms of criminal activities threatening the global security were minimised, if not eliminated.