Shabaab ‘uses network to recruit Kenyans’

A Kenyan soldier gives the thumbs up signal on September 24, 2013 after clearing the top floor balcony and interior of the Westgate mall in Nairobi. Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants, Al-Shabaab, claimed responsibility. AFP PHOTO / CARL DE SOUZA

What you need to know:

  • Mr Hogendoom said in addition that there has been a spillover of Islamic extremism from Somalia where radical groups are trying to indoctrinate Kenyan Somalis.
  • The International Crisis Group said that the extensive use of the police and other security agents risks alienating the Kenyan Somali population and increase indoctrination by al-Shabaab among them.

The Shabaab terror group has built a cross-border network with the aim of recruiting and training youth to fight in Somalia and carry out attacks within Kenya, says a security think-tank.

According to International Crisis Group’s Horn of Africa project director E.J. Hogendoom, there seems to have been increased Islamic training in Kenya’s North Eastern region.

“There have been a number of factors. One longer term one is that for the last couple of decades, there has been an increased funding of conservative madrasas that have made the Muslim community in North Eastern much more conservative and isolated from the central state,” he said.

Mr Hogendoom said in addition that there has been a spillover of Islamic extremism from Somalia where radical groups are trying to indoctrinate Kenyan Somalis.

He said the first group to start indoctrinating Kenyans is called Ittihad al-Islam. It was a prototype radical Islamist group, he added.

“It was militarily defeated by Ethiopia, but its leadership basically went to all the Somali-speaking portions of the Horn and continued their radicalisation activities,” he said.

He said al-Shabaab — which is now taking control of some parts of south and central Somalia — has developed extensive networks in North Eastern and other Somali-speaking areas of Kenya and has been trying to indoctrinate the community.

He said the group indoctrinates students, who are in conservative madrasas.

“They try to get them to join groups that are sympathetic to al-Shabaab, and ultimately they try to recruit them to engage in jihad with them in Somalia,” said Mr Hogendoom.

He noted that Kenya had largely taken a counter-terrorism approach towards al-Shabaab, where the country sees the issue at hand as a security problem, one that can be addressed by either the police or other security agents.

“That’s problematic. We think that counter-radicalisation and de-radicalisation are very different things and require different policies,” he said.
The International Crisis Group said that the extensive use of the police and other security agents risks alienating the Kenyan Somali population and increase indoctrination by al-Shabaab among them.

He said the Kenyan Government should take a more holistic approach to indoctrination of Kenyans by al-Shabaab.

“Obviously, counter-terrorism has a role to play in keeping the country safe. That said, the Kenyan Government needs to be much more proactive in terms of monitoring radical madrasas that are promoting very extremist Islamist views,” he advised.

He added that the government should do more to counter the appeal of radical groups in Somalia and try to bring development to very poor parts of Kenya where Somalis live.