By Bosire Boniface
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Almost six months after the Westgate shopping mall terrorist attack, members of Kenya's Somali community say they are still seen as "guilty by association" with al-Shabaab, and consequently face widespread discrimination in daily life.
In an effort to counter the terrorism-marred image of their community, ethnic Somali lawmakers, religious leaders, teachers, and parents are spreading messages of non-violence and the dangers of extremism, as well as of the importance of informing police about suspicious activities.
Suleiman Hassan Abdi, a 23-year-old law student at the University of Nairobi, said the Somali community has been disproportionately on the receiving end of negative stereotypes, even though other communities are engaged in terror activities as well.
"The entire community is shouldering the blame for few individual offenders. But we are not sitting down and folding our arms," Abdi, a Somali-Kenyan from Wajir County, told Sabahi. "Somali community activities [to fight extremism] may not be visible to other communities, but we are doing everything possible to reclaim our central role in deterring the few individuals with ill intentions."
While Somali clerics take their messages of non-violence to the mosques, the rest of the community is doing its part as well, Abdi said.
"During sermons in mosques, religious leaders say that all acts of terrorism targeting civilians are illegal in Islam and that it is forbidden for a Muslim to co-operate with an individual or group that is involved in any act of terrorism or violence," he said, adding that youth post similar messages on social media forums to engage in positive debate.
'Criminals hide among us'
Garissa township parliamentarian Aden Duale says he supports and encourages the community's efforts.
"Whenever I hold town hall meetings of political or security nature, I am always blunt that some of the criminals hide among us," he told Sabahi. "I tell the community it is their duty to either report the suspects to security officials or deny the suspects refuge."
"A majority of the Somalis are law abiding citizens who detest acts of violence and radicals," he said. "It is the duty of the majority good to stop the few miscreants on their tracks."
However, the outcome of their efforts is negatively impacted by the treatment that ethnic Somalis face, Duale said.
"Somalis who travel from Garissa, Wajir and even Mandera counties often report of harassment at security checkpoints along the roads," he said. "It is not acceptable to single out only [members of] the Somali community because it may spark discontent and disobedience."
He said the Somali community has been victimised by terror groups, just as the general public has been, and blamed for not doing anything to stop the violence.
"The Somali community has not been given credit, but it has helped Kenyan security officials foil plots threatening the security of the people," Duale said.
Furthermore, police do not always welcome reports of suspicious activities from Somalis, he said. "Some of the community members may volunteer information, [but] instead of security officials acting on the information, the volunteer is illegally detained and questioned."
Radio, pulpit used to spread non-violent messages
Equally vocal in the Somali community is Kamukunji parliamentarian Yusuf Hassan Abdi, who was injured in a grenade attack last year near a mosque in Eastleigh neighbourhood.
"We use radio and television stations that broadcast in the Somali language to reach the masses. We denounce acts of terrorism," Abdi told Sabahi. "We cannot go to the battlefield to fight the extremists but we hope our gentle words will prevail upon our community."
To help build better understanding between communities, Abdi said he encourages citizens to reach out to each other and engage other communities in various activities.
In that spirit, the Somali community in Eastleigh, which he represents, often holds intercommunity activities such as neighbourhood cleaning and interfaith conferences, he said.
Wajir Community Radio manager Halima Kahiye told Sabahi that various religious leaders are invited to weekly broadcasts to speak about religion and violence.
"It is a platform to reach the majority of our Somali-speaking listeners," she said. "[Religious leaders] take the opportunity to condemn acts of violence saying it is against Islam."
She said Somalis share the pain of the Westgate attack and other terrorist attacks in the country and have high hopes that the stereotypes against Somalis will recede.
Sheikh Mukhtar Abdi, an imam at Nur Mosque in Mandera town, said clerics also have been doing their part to take responsibility for their important leadership role.
"We preach harmony and the Qur'an as it is," he told Sabahi. "The Qur'an does not advocate for violence and we tell the congregation to refrain from violence."
Mothers keep an eye on children, visiting relatives
Somali mothers are also joining the effort, taking the lead in monitoring their children and playing an important role in the community's fight against al-Shabaab.
In Hagadera refugee camp, Zeinab Ismail Hassan, 47, told Sabahi that about 25 mothers in her block have forbidden their children from travelling outside the camps. She said her four children, two boys and two girls between the ages of 13 and 20, are not allowed to leave home without her permission.
Hassan said that until a series of al-Shabaab attacks in 2012, her two sons often used to travel to Somalia to visit relatives and friends. "But since 2012, I have banned them from going to Somalia. The children's father died in 2010 and I have to take charge," she told Sabahi.
"We took responsibility [to monitor their activities] after discovering that some of our children are using the visits as a pretext to have contact with those bad people who are killing innocent citizens with bombs," she said.
In Wajir town, Kathra Abdi Ali, a 40-year-old mother of three, told Sabahi that she requires relatives visiting her family to inform her in advance and provide reasons for their visits.
Ali said she decided to follow that rule after a series of grenade and gun attacks in Wajir left scores of civilians and security officers killed and injured.
"The Somali culture demands that we welcome visitors with open arms. But mothers in Wajir [have been careful about who they host] after discovering that not all visitors have good intentions," she said, adding that she also requires her children to account for their movements and activities.
While acknowledging that some Somalis are involved in criminal activities, Ali said the community in Wajir is helping security officials by providing information, the latest of which happened February 5th, when residents alerted the police of explosives buried near a Wajir primary school.
"Some of this information should be treated with utmost confidentiality so that the informers are not in danger," she said.
Schools counter al-Shabaab recruitment
Garissa hotelier Bukari Hassan Abdi, 56, said hotel operators are fully complying with the government directive to record guest information, and some hotels are taking additional precautions such as installing security cameras.
"We have placed security before profits," he told Sabahi. "We are not accommodating anyone without them providing names, date of birth, physical attributes, alternate contacts and the purpose of their visit."
"Some of the attacks have been planned from the hotels and we are doing everything not to give potential attackers a hideout," he said.
School teachers are also joining the other Somali community efforts to halt al-Shabaab in its tracks.
Ahmed Hussein Mohammed, a teacher at Mandera Secondary School, told Sabahi that area teachers and school administrators became aware that al-Shabaab was targeting poor students who are unable to pay the school fees in their recruitment drives.
To keep the students busy, many schools now offer free learning or offer subsidies and other assistance to poor families, Hussein said. The local government and contributions from teachers and the community help pay the costs, he said.
"We also conduct seminars within the schools and take advantage of weekly assemblies to create awareness of the danger of joining extremists," he said. "We encourage the students to value their lives and other people's lives. We tell them they have huge responsibilities, great careers ahead and joining the terrorists would not be in their or community's interest."