NAIROBI—Eastleigh community leaders have called upon the government to work closely with community leaders in eradicating radicalization and extremism among young people in the country.
The leaders asked the government to address the challenge of unemployment among the youth who are most vulnerable to be lured into joining criminal groups.
Addressing the forum organized by the Peaceand Awarenes Youth (PAY) group, the Muslim Human Rights Forum (MHRF) Chairman Al Amin Kimathi urged government to rehabilitate the affected youth and integrate them back into the society in order to make them less vulnerable and susceptible to been lured into extremist groups.
He emphasized on the need for the government to change tack and stop taking hard-line approaches in the fight against terrorism and instead engage communities into development programmes.
“It is fact that organized criminal gangs can easily become terrorist groups. It is time to address such an issue to make them productive members of the society. These groups of youth need to be tutored to have a positive focus and only be succeed if the government could organize for them entrepreneurship programmes to give them livelihood,” he said
Al Amin further criticized the proposed KDF Amendment Bill 2015 saying it is a dangerous Bill that will lead to grave human rights violations and make Kenya a military state.
He said the Bill is meant to expand military powers and will further propagate extrajudicial killings and historical injustices in the country such as the Wagalla massacre of 1984.
“This is one of the most dangerous piece of legislation Kenyans have witnessed and it should not be allowed into law. It will militarize internal security and turned the country into a military state.
Civilians, Muslims, minorities, everyone will bear the brunt if it is enacted into law,” he said.
If enacted into law, the Bill will give authority to the Chief of the Defence Forces to deploy KDF in civilian operations and also increase the role of KDF in internal security.
The bill abolishes requirement for KDF to advertise slots as per counties. It also insulates KDF operations, including appropriation of its budget and functions, from public scrutiny by denying Parliament the oversight role.
It allows court martial to try civilian suspects and the KDF to pacify the kind of court a suspect can be referred to.
Among other provisions, the Bill also envisages establishment of an auxiliary reserve force comprising Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and National Youth Service (NYS) to serve alongside the KDF.
Speaking during the end of a month-long peace awareness seminar, Eastleigh community activist Ahmed Muhammad said dangerous organized criminal gangs such as ‘super power’ have emerged in Eastliegh and that if swift measures are not taken to address the matter, majority of the youth will be recruited into join such groups.
“We have youth in Eastleigh who have gone into organized gangs such as ‘super power’ and ‘sitaki kujua’ we need to stop them from joining radicalized groups. They are now carrying knives to mug people what will stop them from carrying guns in the future” he noted.
Ahmed faulted the government for not making its presence felt in anti-radicalization campaigns such as peace forums organized by local youth noting that government needs to support efforts of Muslim leaders in eliminating the threat of extremism.
“We don’t have a government representative in this forum, who should be here to assist in educating our youth on dangers of joining extremist groups,” he added.
Source: Friday Bulletin
