The country has faced cases of youths being radicalised locally and in neighbouring Somalia, where the Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab is based/FILE
The country has faced cases of youths being radicalised locally and in neighbouring Somalia, where the Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab is based.
On Tuesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta told a leaders’ summit on countering the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and violent extremism on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, that the plan includes offering psychosocial support, securing the population and territory and countering the ideology of violence.
Other areas of focus are “promotion of religious diversity, strategic communication and building capacity for resilience,” he told the gathering in a speech read by Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery.
He said the world is faced with challenges of climate change, terrorism, upsurge in violent extremism which “an unstable terrain that threatens the prospects of human development and International peace and security.”
Kenya has borne its fair share of the brunt of terror, having faced five major attacks beginning with the bombing of the 1998 US Embassy in Nairobi.
“As we strive to create frameworks to guarantee better lives for humanity, the extremists reject a social and political order that is anchored on the core democratic principles of pluralism, diversity, individual freedoms and rights to association and speech,” President Kenyatta observed.
He paid tribute to the Kenyan people who have not been shaken by the attacks, which have instead “emboldened our resolve. Never before has the region stood in strong solidarity as now.”
He said to fully tackle radicalisation and extremism, his administration has aligned its policy, legal institutional and operational mechanisms to better respond – to detect, disrupt and defend.
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