‘Raiding mosques will not end radicalisation’

Security experts are advocating that the Government changes tact in the fight against radicalisation among Muslim youth.

This comes in the wake of last week’s slaying of 28 people aboard a Nairobi-bound bus from Mandera town, eliciting public outrage.

But even as the Government clamps down on individuals and places perceived to be breeding grounds for religious extremism, security experts warn against using approaches that could be counterproductive and further complicate the war against terror.

“There is no denying that threat to life and property is a crime. There is also no denying that anyone committing such crimes by hiding behind the banner of religion must be dealt with by the law. But the Government must also recognise that radicalisation is a problem that must be dealt with separately and therefore the need to separate strategies and approaches towards fighting it,” says Institute for Security Studies (ISS)senior researcher and Nairobi office head, Governance, Crime and Justice Division, Peter Aling’o.

“Using a militarised approach by storming mosques or any other place of worship won’t solve the problem. We should instead use structures in society that already exist like religious and community leadership to reach out to individual families,” he adds.

The researcher says that even though incidences of insecurity have been witnessed at the Coast and Northern parts of Kenya, they differ from those occurring in Turkana and Isiolo counties, because of the context in which they arise and should be handled as such.
According to an ISS commissioned paper, there are lessons for Kenya on how Nigerian authorities first dealt with Boko Haram in 2002-2009.

“Arguably, the human rights shortcuts taken in the July 2009 police and military campaign against the group (especially the execution of its leadership without trial) have in many respects sown the seeds for what has ensued since the group’s followers and sympathisers reformed after the crushing action by authorities in 2009.”

It has been argued that there is a risk by some States of ‘over-reacting or ‘taking human rights short cuts’ to contain certain situations, that end up fueling rather than prevent radicalisation by individuals and groups.

African Centre for Security and Strategic Studies director Cpt (rtd) Simiyu Werunga says the Government had to act to show it was taking charge of the situation.
While he too says raiding places of worship won’t solve the problem, he thinks Muslims leaders should do much more.

“We have people that are well respected within the Muslim community. We need to see them take a more active role in working with Government to come up with social programmes to undress the socio-economic underlying factors that lead youth to be radicalised,” Cpt (rtd) Werunga.

He says an exodus of public officers from the trouble spots would be playing into the militants hands, but adds that the Government must do its bit to encourage them to stay.
“The Government must come up with mechanisms to assure public officers of their safety while working in these areas,” he says.

A paper presented to ISS titled Radicalisation in Kenya; Recruitment to al-Shabaab and the Mombasa Republican Council by Anneli Botha, a researcher on terrorism, notes the different profiles of the two groups. Whereas Al-Shabaab pursues an Islamist terrorist agenda, the coast-based MRC pursues a secessionist agenda.

Botha notes that despite the fact that the two groups agenda differs, the question is whether they tap into the same frustrations and grievances that often manifest in demonstrations following allegations that prominent radical Muslim clerics, like Aboud Rogo, Ibrahim Omar and Abubakar Shariff (Makaburi) ‘are being assassinated by Kenyan security agencies’.

But there are also other factors contributing to the growth of radicalisation in the country.
Politicisation of security matters, for instance, has been cited as lending a foothold to its growth. For instance, even though al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for attacks in Mpeketoni, Lamu, where more than 60 people were killed, the Government blamed the Opposition.

Security experts say it would be foolhardy to assume that all Kenyan Somalis or Muslims for that matter, are terrorists since past events have proved otherwise. Some of the perpetrators implicated in terror attacks in the country have been young non-Somali Muslim converts like Elgiva Bwire, who was jailed for life in 2011 after pleading guilty to terror charges.

The UN Monitoring Group has also noted that al-Shabaab, has since 2009, rapidly expanded its influence and membership to include non –Somali Kenyans. Among those said to be fighting inside Somalia are Juma Ayub Were, Suleiman Irungu ‘Karongo’(Habib), Mohamed Murithi and Ramadhan Osao.