Somalia war: Kenya on the spot over secret enlisting

“We are doing everything to stop this because it is a matter of national security. We are monitoring our borders very keenly,” Mr Ongeri said. However, he said it was an Internal Security matter and was being handled as such.

In Garissa, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights northern region coordinator Hassan Abdille Abdi said the commission had received numerous complaints from locals on the secret hiring. “It is suspicious to carry out recruitment secretly without informing residents and local leaders,” Mr Abdi said.

Speaking to reporters during the close of a two-day regional consultative forum on security sector reforms in northern Kenya, Mr Abdi urged the government to clear the air on the matter. Mr Gabow, who was flanked by other civic leaders from the region, blamed the government for acting blindly to the whims of donors.

“If our youth take part in the fighting in Somalia, there is a possibility that Al-Shabaab insurgents will retaliate by attacking Kenya,” the mayor said. Garissa deputy mayor Ismail Mohamed Garad said the government should create jobs for the youth in the region instead of taking them to fight in a lawless country.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama pledged on Tuesday to continue US counter-terrorism operations in East Africa, which recently included a deadly helicopter raid inside Somalia. “The United States and our partners have sent an unmistakable message,” Mr Obama declared in a speech at the National Counterterrorism Centre near Washington.

“We will target al-Qaeda wherever they take root; we will not yield in our pursuit; and we are developing the capacity and the cooperation to deny a safe haven to any who threaten America and its allies.”

The US president said earlier in his address that “al-Qaeda and its extremist allies threaten us from different corners of the globe — from Pakistan, but also from East Africa and Southeast Asia.”

A lightning attack last month in southern Somalia by US Special Forces killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who was being hunted for his involvement in the 2002 Paradise Hotel bombing in Kikambala near Mombasa and the bombing, in 1998, of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. It was the first known military action in Somalia carried out by the US since Mr Obama came to power nearly 10 months ago.