Uhuru orders aggressive mop up of radicalized youth, indoctrinators and financiers

Imams and muslim leaders pray for peace during commemoration of the DusitD2 Hotel terror attack. [Omondi Onyango/Standard]

President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered a nationwide operation to crack down on radicalised youth, their mentors and financiers.

The President, while addressing senior administration and police officers at State House, Mombasa, yesterday said his administration would not leave anything to chance in the war on terror.

“It’s our intention to pursue those who planned and financed last week’s attack using all instruments at our disposal,” said Uhuru, a week after the terror attack at the 14 Riverside Drive complex in which 21 people were killed.

The President directed regional coordinators and county commissioners to implement action plans to prevent and counter violent extremists in their jurisdictions.

“You are expected to report on progress on your collaboration with civil society groups and other religious leaders to ensure radicalised Kenyans and their radicalisers, who present a threat to our people, are quickly detected and dealt with severely.”

At the same time, the President said the Government would roll out an integrated population registration system – the National Integrated Identity Management Systems – with the personal details of all Kenyans and foreigners living in the country as a measure aimed at combating crime.

“For each registration, the system will generate a unique ID that will be known as Huduma Number,” said Uhuru, adding that county commissioners would oversee the registration.

Outlining the measures his administration would take to spur development this year, Uhuru said he had signed an Executive Order on Monday to give regional coordinators and county commissioners powers to chair development implementation committees.

He directed that all Government agencies and departments subscribe to his philosophy of “One Government” approach to bring an end to sibling rivalry among State officers.

“All ministries, departments and semi-autonomous agencies must embrace the multi-agency spirit. Regional coordinators and county commissioners will be the lead officers on the national Government development agenda at the counties and regions,” said Uhuru.

The President said regional coordinators would chair regional development implementation committees while county commissioners chair county development implementation committees.

“This directive is meant to increase efficiency, speed of delivery, better utilisation of public resources and reduce wastage,” said Uhuru.

The President described corruption, gate-keeping, rent-seeking, fraud and misuse of public resources as a threat to the country’s unity, well-being and security.“Protect public resources as if they were your own. Kenyans expect nothing less from all of us,” Uhuru told the security chiefs.