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Underlying causes of radicalisation must be tackled

Anti-Radicalisation Measures

The government has taken some measures to combat the problem, particularly in the schools.

In April, the Education Ministry warned school authorities to look out for attempts to radicalise pupils. Under new guidelines, guest speakers are vetted and their presentations sent to the ministry for advance approval. Students transferring from one school to another now undergo background checks.

The ministry also directed schools to carry out internal investigations to establish whether radicalisation was taking place on their premises, and also to intensify the guidance and counselling they offered pupils.

A senior staff member at a private school in Kajiado, where one suspected case of radicalisation was reported earlier this year, told IWPR that the school was now working closely with local security agencies to tackle the problem.

Mboroki told IWPR that increased vigilance had resulted in some success. However, some teachers and security experts believe the new measures are only partly effective.

Mary Atieno, a state school teacher in Eldoret in the Rift Valley, told IWPR that her students have been receiving regular talks about safety and security, but “beyond that, there has been no visible security presence in the school”.

Bashir Abdullaih, a retired major who now works as a security consultant in Nairobi, welcomed the new measures and security alerts. But he wants to see the ministry take a more hands-on approach by working in close consultation with the police and conducting “thorough background checks” on teachers.

“The ministry cannot expect a compromised school or teacher to report themselves,” he said.

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Abdullaih also called on Kenya’s counter-terrorism police to work closely with the public.

“It is unfortunate that the anti-terror unit which should be contributing to public security does not seem to understand their role in protecting schoolchildren from radical extremists,” he said. “The anti-terror unit should reach out to the public, [inform] them [about] the serious threat posed by extremists to the country, and educate the public so the public can be able to reach out to come to the police with vital information.”

Other experts are more sceptical about the value of vetting teachers and other such reactive measures. Werunga pointed out that it was very difficult to get information that would incriminate staff members or raise questions about their motives.

Instead, Werunga believes there is a need to focus on the underlying problems that al-Shabaab exploits in its recruitment drive. Unless entrenched poverty and the marginalisation of and discrimination against the Muslim community, and residents of coastal areas generally, are tackled, the problem will persist, he said.

Other security groups have come to a similar conclusion. A report by the International Crisis Group think-tank published in September argued that the Kenyan government should implement the recommendations of a 2008 presidential committee in order to address longstanding discrimination against Muslims and their lack of representation in official roles.

“We have no national programme to deal with those underlying problems,” Werunga said. “We want to know the underlying factors, we want to know the growth of this issue, we want to understand how it has gotten to this point and how we can reverse this trend.”

(This article is the last in IWPR’s Kenya Security series. It was produced as part of a media development programme implemented by IWPR and Wayamo Communication Foundation in partnership with Capital FM)

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