University students on Shabaab payroll
National Counter Terrorism Centre director Isaac Ochieng (left) with security analyst Simiyu Warunga at an event at the Kempinsky Hotel in Nairobi on May 20, 2015. FILE PHOTO | EVANS HABIL |
What you need to know:
- National Counter Terrorism Centre director warns of recruitment by terror groups.
- A former university student led the attack on Garissa University College.
Students in institutions of higher learning are being recruited into violent extremist organisations at an alarming rate, National Counter Terrorism Centre director Isaac Ochieng has warned.
According to Mr Ochieng, the intelligence service has already received the names of some students who have been radicalised and are receiving salaries from Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda.
“There is increased recruitment, training and indoctrination of the youth into terrorism cells. These terror groups are now targeting brilliant youths to recruit,” said Mr Ochieng during a panel presentation on countering violent extremism.
“We have intelligence that there are students within the University of Nairobi who are on the payroll of Al-Shabaab. It is very sad.”
The official warned that the intelligence service would fish out the radicalised students.
This revelation comes months after a 24-year-old former University of Nairobi law student led the Al-Shabaab assault that slaughtered 148 people at Garissa University College.
Mohammed Abdirahim Abdullahi, nicknamed Ababmo by his classmates at the Law Faculty’s Parklands Campus, was the son of Abdullahi Daqare, the chief of Bulla Jamhuri location in Mandera County.
