Kenya is facing serious security threats, months after suffering its worst assault in the hands of Somali terrorist network at the Westgate shopping mall.
Years before this attack was the August 1998 US embassy bombing in Nairobi. Now, there are telling signs that the Somali Islamist group, Al Shabaab, is re-grouping and renewed recruitment drives, targeting desperate youths in the country and outside, are underway.
Senior security sources, who declined to be named, are worried that the bait of the Al Qaeda proxy in Somalia has gained a new catch beyond its usual recruiting grounds in North Eastern and coastal regions.
More than 60 people, believed to be heading to Somalia to bolster the criminal activities of the weakened group, have been intercepted in Garissa County in the last ten months alone, according to the County Head of Investigation Musa Yego.
In an exclusive interview with The Standard at his office in Garissa town, Mr Yego said recruits, mainly youths in the 18 to 30 years age bracket, were joining the blood-thirsty criminal gangs in droves.
The terror group, according Yego, is targeting the most vulnerable and destitute youths in slums and refugee camps in Dadaab and Kakuma.
He said they are enticed with irresistible false better life and good job opportunities. According to Yego, a number of them are extremely radicalised, which encourages them to be almost intoxicated to die for what they were made to believe is a holy war (Jihad).
"Some of the youths we arrested due to our increased security surveillance and patrols are determined to die for a false course they were made to believe will send them to paradise through a shortcut," he said.
Remain vulnerable A reformed recruit in Wajir, who we can't name because of his security, said if youth empowerment is not seriously considered, the unemployed lot will remain vulnerable to the Islamist group's bait as detonators of explosives inside the country.
Years before this attack was the August 1998 US embassy bombing in Nairobi. Now, there are telling signs that the Somali Islamist group, Al Shabaab, is re-grouping and renewed recruitment drives, targeting desperate youths in the country and outside, are underway.
Senior security sources, who declined to be named, are worried that the bait of the Al Qaeda proxy in Somalia has gained a new catch beyond its usual recruiting grounds in North Eastern and coastal regions.
More than 60 people, believed to be heading to Somalia to bolster the criminal activities of the weakened group, have been intercepted in Garissa County in the last ten months alone, according to the County Head of Investigation Musa Yego.
In an exclusive interview with The Standard at his office in Garissa town, Mr Yego said recruits, mainly youths in the 18 to 30 years age bracket, were joining the blood-thirsty criminal gangs in droves.
The terror group, according Yego, is targeting the most vulnerable and destitute youths in slums and refugee camps in Dadaab and Kakuma.
He said they are enticed with irresistible false better life and good job opportunities. According to Yego, a number of them are extremely radicalised, which encourages them to be almost intoxicated to die for what they were made to believe is a holy war (Jihad).
"Some of the youths we arrested due to our increased security surveillance and patrols are determined to die for a false course they were made to believe will send them to paradise through a shortcut," he said.
Remain vulnerable A reformed recruit in Wajir, who we can't name because of his security, said if youth empowerment is not seriously considered, the unemployed lot will remain vulnerable to the Islamist group's bait as detonators of explosives inside the country.
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