Schools on security radar over terror

At least six schools are under scrutiny after some of their students dropped out to join terrorist groups in Somalia and Syria.

Isiolo Boys High School tops the list, as 10 of its students quit to join Al-Shabaab in Somalia last year.

Also on the security radar are Marsabit Mixed Secondary School and Moi Girls Secondary also in Marsabit.

The others are in western Kenya among them, Koseka Secondary, Birunda PAG Primary and St Patrick’s Bumula Secondary School.

The boys have quit school to become fighters, while the girls get married to the terrorists.

In one case, a female teacher recruited her students and later joined them in Somalia.

The information is contained in a government report seen by the Nation. The report also contains photographs of key terrorists involved in recruiting Kenyan youth.

Public help has been sought to arrest them. “Terror groups, particularly Al-Shabaab have over the years used various media to target the youth. They urge them to travel to Somalia,” the report says.

ATTRACTIVE GROUP

“Recently, ISIS has also become an attractive extremist group that is luring vulnerable youth to join them,” it adds.

The document suggests that in many of the cases, the youth travel without the knowledge of their parents. However, parents are blamed for failing to report the disappearance of their children to the authorities.

“Given the disapproval these groups have among parents and authorities, many of the youth run away from home or drop out of school and disappear without their parents’ knowledge.

“A few parents report their children’s disappearance, but most of them choose to keep quiet,” the report says.

The document identifies two teenage girls — Tawfiqa Dahir and Salwa Abdalla — and says they have joined ISIS in Syria.

“The girls attracted to these groups are generally in the adolescent-young adult category. They tend to have a romantic notion about the lives of the extremists.

“A recent case of the young women from South C, who allegedly joined ISIS, illustrates how serious the situation is,” the report adds.

It also warns that some of the recruits have sneaked back to Kenya.

WAGING WAR

“Some of the youth have returned to Kenya with the mission of waging war against their fellow citizens.”

Among them, the report states, is Ahmed Awadh Said alias Biggy who disappeared from Mvita in 2014.

“After training in Somalia, he returned to Kenya as part of the Jeshi Ayman militia operating between Boni Forest and Somalia. Ahmed is one of the Al-Shabaab terrorists, who participated in the Baure Kenya Defence Forces camp attack in June,” it says.

The report also reveals key terrorists, who recruit the youth on behalf of Al-Shabaab.

They include Abdifatah Abubakar Ahmed and Ramadhan Kufungwa, who operate mostly at the Coast.

“Ahmed is among the most wanted individuals, who have been responsible for a series of terror attacks in the Coast region.

“He was involved in planning and coordinating attacks for Al-Shabaab and was part of the commanders of Jeshi Ayman in the Boni Forest. He commanded attacks in Lamu and Tana River counties.

“He was also involved in planning the Westgate Shopping Mall attack in September 2013. Part of his coordinating and planning involves recruitment of young men at the Coast to join Al-Shabaab and recruitment of young women as wives for the fighters in Somalia,” according to the report.

Among the women he has recruited, the report says, are Ummul Khayr Sadir, Khadija Abubakar Abdulkadir and Maryam Said Aboud. The three were arrested in El Wak while attempting to cross into Somalia.

Regarding Kufungwa, the report says he oversaw the indoctrination of recruited youth before sending them to Somalia.

VIOLENT ROBBERIES

He is wanted for the killing of Sheikh Idriss Mohamed, who was gunned down in Mombasa in June last year.

The reports adds: “He was also behind a spate of violent robberies in Mombasa that were carried out by members of his cell so as to raise money for Al-Shabaab activities.

“He continues to coordinate the recruitment of youth and facilitating their movement to Somalia as well as the provision of logistical support to militia holed up in Boni Forest where they periodically engage law enforcement authorities in attacks, particularly using explosives.

Then there is the common figure on Al-Shabaab propaganda videos — Ahmed Iman Ali. In the videos he asks Kenyan youth to take up arms and kill.

“Ahmed Iman’s efforts extend beyond the social media sphere, he is in charge of a facilitation network that is recruiting young Kenyan men and women from the Coast, Nairobi, northeastern and other parts of the country,” the report says.

He was born in Mombasa, but grew up in Majengo, Nairobi, following a family split. Iman studied engineering at the University of Nairobi on a government sponsorship.

“While at the university, he was radicalised by Sheikh Aboud Rogo, who was killed in Mombasa. By 2005, he led other radicalised youth to eject the Pumwani Riyadha Mosque Committee members claiming that they were not teaching the ideology of groups like Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda within the mosque.

LURE YOUTH

“In 2009, he left for Somalia where he operates and continues to lure the youth,” says the report.

Some of his recruits include Hassan Omondi Owiti alias Budalang’i and Abdalla Bin Abdalla.

Budalang’i killed a number of people in grenade attacks in Nairobi in 2012 before he was killed in a gunfight with police in Githurai.

As for Abdalla Bin Abdalla, he operates from Boni Forest, where Jeshi Ayman, the Kenyan Al-shabaab faction is based.

Iman has been targeting youths in the city’s Majengo and in Mombasa, Malindi, Isiolo, Marsabit, Kakamega, Isinya and Garissa.

“Shamsa Shariff Mohamed and Saada Bilal, the wife and mother of Abdalla bin Abdalla alias Maalime Burhan, were arrested last month following investigations on the network of recruiters luring young Kenyan women to join Al-Shabaab and marry Al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia. They were arraigned in court and pleaded guilty,” the report says.