How to beat terrorists in their game

Let us start off with the annoyance of two Muslim friends of Deputy President William Ruto and Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo.

It is long since I called these two eminent Kenyans on their cellphones, and so cannot tell whether they have changed their call-waiting ringtones.

Let us start with the friend of Kimaiyo.

When the police first stormed Masjid Musa mosque ostensibly to recover arms and other Al-Shabaab paraphernalia, he was in Nairobi but was called by one of the Muslims in the prayer house at the time.

In respect of his social standing in society, he decided to call up Kimaiyo to plead with him to stop the ghastly and counter-productive measure which to the Islamists amounted to desecrating Allah's prayer house.

But it was, he told me, horrifying to call Kimaiyo only to listen to a Christian tune as he waited for the police boss to pick his call. He just disconnected because of the feeling of the alienation set off by the ring-tone espousing the works of the good Lord.

The friend of Ruto was more categorical: "Majority of Muslims voted for Jubilee through the United Republican Party because they felt Ruto stood up for them. But then his ringtone never changed and in his condemnation of terror attacks he would invoke the name of Jesus."

He went on: "We don't support terror but we also dislike blanket condemnation and State-sponsored atrocities and executions targeting Muslims!" he said with finality.

On this score he argued Muslims, who are the minority in the country compared to Christians like Kimaiyo and Ruto, have justification to feel alienated from the rest of the country because of the way leaders innocently radiate messages that are divisive, if not unsettling, to the minority groups.

The sense of belonging indeed goes beyond appointing a few more Duales to top positions in Government.

Now, let us plunge into the thorny issue of terrorism, capped by the killing in Mandera of 28 passengers pulled off a bus, and gruesomely finished off because they were not Muslims.

Al-Shabaab gloatingly claimed responsibility, of course in retaliation to the mosque raids.

Like any Kenyan, my heart bleeds for the victims and families of those killed in the galling wave of terror.

Again, we also should have our national conscience pricked by the extra-judicial killings targeting perceived fiery Islamic leaders, on suspicion they are Al-Shabaab adherents.

Yes, whereas in other countries there are Christian fundamentalists, in Kenya's case, it is almost accurate that most, if not, all terrorists are Muslims. But does this mean all terrorists are Muslims?

What about our Muslim friends who like in the case of Westgate Mall siege last year, also fell victim to the bullet-and-grenade attack?

To win the war against terror, there are four fundamental steps we must take and this does not include widening the gap between Muslims and Christians.

First, we mustn't fall into the booby trap that the fundamentalists want us to put our foot into.

They want to set Muslims against Christian in the hope that it would lead to what they have called "rivers of blood", our blood, just as in Nigeria, Mali and even Somalia where we see a mindless war of one clan against another.

Secondly, we must engage the Muslim leadership in addressing the issue of radicalisation.

Yes, there are thousands of Muslims who would want to join the fight against terror because it harms them too, but we haven't given them the sense of belonging they need to find it all worth the risk.

Thirdly, the war against terror won't be won by President Uhuru, Ruto and KDF or police alone.

Again, there aren't enough soldiers and police to guard all of us, but there are millions of us who can collectively watch over each other.

If you think this is impossible, research on how Israel, which is surrounded by enemies, has survived the strain of sporadic attacks.

Lastly, intelligence, good intelligence works! Surveillance using the latest technologies never fails.

But to do so, we must raise the level of training of our security personnel, weaken security ties with such countries as China and embrace the West and Europe and their sophistication in this field.

Of course we must also rethink the message our ring and call waiting tones relay to those who look upon us for leadership and direction.

I have never called Uhuru so I don't know what his is but still, we must tug along Muslims if we are to cross the turbulent river of terrorism that began in 1997 as a mere rivulet but which has refused to go.