FRIDAY BULLETIN—The United States president Barack Obama has cautioned the jubilee government against the profiling and discrimination ofMuslims in the fight against terrorism.
Obama who was in the country for the three-day 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit that concluded on Sunday urged the government to change tack in the war on terrorism and uphold the rule of law while respecting human rights of the affected communities.
The US leader in his historic visit to the country urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to engage and work in close partnership with the affected communities in addressing the threat of radicalization and terrorism noting that blanket condemnation and collective punishment only serves as fodder for terrorist groups to recruit more members.
“Sometimes, through hard experience, we found out that if you paint a particular group of people with the same brush in reaction to terrorism, then that can increase resentment among communities that feel marginalized,” he said.
Speaking about his country’s experience, he said counter-terrorism agencies have been able to register gains in the efforts to combat terrorism due to the policy of community engagement.
“I shared with the government that in the US, we consciously engage the Muslim community because they are important partners in this process,” he added.
He continued, “The only way to stop the poison being fed on our young people through social media is to have this communities as our ears and eyes on the ground.”
In his address to Kenyans at the Safaricom Sports Centre Kasarani on Sunday, President Obama said the Muslim population’s immense contribution to the country’s wellbeing cannot be overlooked stressing that profiling people based on ethnic and religious affiliation is counter productive to the efforts to contain extremism.
“The US and Kenya both have Muslim minorities and those minorities make huge contributions to our countries. These are our brothers they are our sisters,” Obama said as he expressed his concerns over injustices and marginalization of communities in the fight against terrorism saying that the policy will further fuel resentment and extremism.
During the much criticized Operation Usalama Watch in last year, the Sports Centre came to be known as the “Kasarani concentration camp” for its notoriety as the holding centre for thousands of ethnic Somalis who were rounded up for what the state said were suspected terrorists and illegal immigrants.
The US president noted that the scourge of terrorism cannot be won by employing heavy handed approaches but through winning the hearts and minds of the people and provision of social and economic opportunities to the communities that are most susceptible and vulnerable to extremist groups.
“You cannot fight terrorism through military and police, you also have to change people’s hearts and minds and give them a sense of inclusivity,” he said later during his engagement with the members of civil society at the Kenyatta University.
On his part President Uhuru pledged to change his administration’s approach towards countering extremism saying his government is learning and devising better ways of tackling terrorism. “We learn with each and every step, we are improving our capacities and our methods of dealing with terrorism. We as a country are willing to learn,” he noted while fielding questions from the press at State House.
Obama said the US will continue to support Kenya in the war on terror and pledged more funds to eliminate the growing threat of Somalia based terror group Al Shabaab affirming that US will stand with Kenya ‘shoulder by shoulder in the fight against terrorism’.
He also spoke on the need for civil society organizations to operate in free and democratic space pointing out that the US government will stand to protect the organizations from being suppressed by governments.
“I don’t want counter-terrorism to be used as an excuse to counter legitimate dissent. In all our actions and engagement with the government, when we see organizations that are legitimate and peaceful being suppressed, we will speak up,” he told members of the civil society who included Hussein Khalid, the executive director of the Haki Africa, one of the two Muslim organizations that were subjected to a government crackdown for their alleged support to terrorist organization.
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