Friday, November 8, 2013
By Fabian Mangera and Stephen Ingati
GARISSA, Kenya, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- More than 60 people believed to be heading to Somalia to bolster the criminal activities of Al- Shabaab have been intercepted at the border town of Garissa in recent months, police confirmed on Friday.
Regional CID commander Musa Yego told journalists here that the suspected recruits, who are mainly young people aged between 18 to 30 years, were driven by a false hope for a better life, prospects of good job opportunities and indoctrination with radicalized and twisted teaching of a Holy war.
"Some of the youths... (thought that) to die for a false cause they were made to believe will give them a short cut to the paradise," Yego said.
"Others were heading to Somalia to join the terrorist group, after being lured that, they will be offered a well paying job in Somalia," he said, adding that some of those arrested came from regional countries.
Yego said those arrested include Kenyans from Nairobi, central and coastal regions, while others came from Tanzania and Uganda.
"This week we managed to nab a 23 year-old Tanzanian national at Hulugho border town, who used his three months visa to stay in the country to pass through to Somalia. On further interrogation he claimed to be heading to Somalia in search of a job he was offered," Yego said.
The regional CID commander said they also apprehended a Ugandan national at Liboi border point early this week as he was attempting to sneak into the war-ravaged neighboring country purportedly looking for job offers.
"When we interrogated these people, they are all alleging that there are jobs there and we asks ourselves how can you look for a job in a country put asunder by over two decades of factional fighting and activities of terrorism," Yego said.
He said that there are brokers who are involved in the illegal recruitment and movements of suspected Al-Shabaab fighters from other parts of the country and the region, noting that they have so far arrested several suspects.
Yego said the police in Dadaab arrested 21 young men on Tuesday after they were found travelling to Somalia to allegedly join Al- Shabaab militants.
"I do sympathize with these people because when we arrest and take them to court, nobody was coming to bail themselves out, even when the court offered them an option of a bail. If there is any money (offered), why those who are promising them money ranging between 940 U.S. dollars to 3,530 dollars do not come to their rescue," he asked.
Yego took issues with the UN refugee agency for giving criminals who claim to be refugees blank movement permits, which allow them to move freely in the country.
This, he said, enables the criminals to dupe security dragnet and later commits crime or cross the border to join Al-Shabaab.
Yego said security has been heightened along the porous border with Somalia with security agencies at an unprecedented state of alert after latest reports that Al-Shabaab is planning more attacks against Kenya and foreign interests in the country.
Since Kenya sent troops across the border into Somalia in October 2011, northern and parts of eastern Kenya have been hit by a series of blasts, many targeting local security forces and humanitarian workers.
Several attacks believed to have been carried out by Al-Shabaab have occurred in Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa and Dadaab districts of northern Kenya even as the military reports gains against the Islamist group by capturing their military bases and killing scores of them.