DEALING WITH TERRORISM IN KENYA

By ALEX Senerwa

Kenya needs a fresh strategy to
counter violent extremism threatEarlier this week, Kenyan police
arrested four people on suspicion of
trying to join the Islamic State group in
Libya.

The men were on a bus bound for
Uganda allegedly before connecting to
Sudan then Libya.

While the arrests point to sound
intelligence and close collaboration
among the security agencies, it
nevertheless continues to highlight the
reality of violent extremism as a
continuing threat in Kenya.

It is estimated that about 20 Kenyans
have been recruited into Isis.

This poses new challenges in countering
violent extremism in the light of the
many others who have joined Al-
Shabaab.

It also underlines the fact that the
nature and patterns of violent
extremism have changed from a threat
primarily emanating from Somalia to a
home-grown, Kenyan problem
necessitating a review of the strategies
of how to counter it.

Counter-terrorism efforts are critical in
dealing with extremist violence.

However, in the absence of a robust,
coherent, high-level strategy to counter
and prevent violent extremism, the
danger is that only the security aspects
will be addressed and will continue to
define the scope of policy interventions
in dealing with terrorism.

PREVENTION MEASURES

Whereas counter-terrorism is concerned
with disrupting terrorism using security
and law enforcement means, preventing
violent extremism focuses on
strengthening communities’ efforts to
resist radicalisation and extremism.
The Kenyan government should review
and develop an integrated and
comprehensive strategy that brings
together different agencies and actors.
The strategy should take into account
the complexity of the drivers of
extremist violence.

To gain the confidence and support of
the relevant communities, prevention
approaches must not be securitised.

A prevention strategy must, however,
interface with what the law
enforcement agencies are doing.
Given that extremist violence is
underpinned by an ideology of
marginalisation and victimisation that
is shared by some Muslim youth in the
coastal and northern regions of Kenya,
perceived or real grievances held by
communities living in these areas must
be addressed.

Kenya’s counter violent extremism
strategy must take into account the role
of religion and encourage and support
both inter and intra-faith dialogue and
engagement.

The government needs to work with a
diversity of leaders within the Muslim
community and not just the clerics.

Not all youth are associated with
mosques or will listen to clerics.
It will be important to identify and
partner with influential people from all
sectors to facilitate publicising counter
narratives and address contested
concepts such as the religious role of
violence.

STRATEGY

A prevention strategy needs to pay
attention to the networks of
mobilisation and recruitment of the
youth into extremist groups.
This should not be turned into
surveillance or spying on the Muslim
community.

Access to social media, for instance, can
be widened to increase the diversity of
voices that can challenge and counter
the narratives propounded by
extremists.

The strategy should support actors and
institutions such as schools to promote
critical thinking among the youth and
students so as to equip them with skills
to challenge ideas that are promoted
online by extremists.

Many young people get their
information from the internet and there
should be greater investment at the
school and community levels to promote
safe use of the web.
Parents also need to be encouraged to
monitor what their children are
browsing and reading.
Policy development should be informed
by research and data and draw from
measures that have been successful in
stemming the recruitment and
mobilisation of the youth into criminal
enterprises, gangs, and extremist
movements.
This could contribute to addressing the
perception that radicalisation only
affects Muslim communities.
Effective prevention of extremism is
local. To that effect, the national
strategy should take into account the
important role that county governments
can play.
It is only by strengthening community-
level efforts and upholding the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights that
the war against violent extremism can
be won.