President Kenyatta was speaking at the Chatham House in London at an event titled ‘Kenya’s Priorities for Inclusive Growth: Towards Domestic Development and Regional Peace/file
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 18 – President Uhuru Kenyatta has urged security agencies across the world to partner closely, saying terrorism can only be defeated through an all-inclusive approach.
He says social equality cannot flourish where there is lack of security while citing terrorism as one of the biggest threats to democratic nations.
President Kenyatta was speaking at the Chatham House in London at an event titled ‘Kenya’s Priorities for Inclusive Growth: Towards Domestic Development and Regional Peace’.
“We must also act together to equip our people to counter the threats of weaponised information, which is now perhaps the most insidious tool of the new age,” he said.
He called for United Kingdom’s support to build stronger initiatives to prevent recruitment into terrorism and to more effectively disengage and rehabilitate foreign terrorist fighters who have defected and returned home.
“We must make it harder for the anti-democratic, hate-filled fanatics who are organising against liberty and trying to turn our citizens into hateful, violent extremists,” he asserted.
President Kenyatta said Kenya and the UK must cooperate in building prosperity that offers jobs and opportunity to create wealth for the youth and gain from the demographic dividend.
“There is no more powerful engine for lifting millions out of poverty than entrepreneurship and trade,” he said.
“Our youthful population must have access to economic opportunities that lift our country to greater heights and maintain our peace and unity.”
He said London is a global centre of banking and investment while Kenya is home to skilled people and investment opportunities.
“The Kenyan and British people are marked by their pragmatism. We must marry that sense of practicality to ambition, optimism, and courage to embrace the future that is already here to deliver success in the areas I have outlined,” he said.
He noted that Al-Shabaab terrorists in war-torn Somalia still pose a security threat to locals and the region.
Kenya has paid heavily for instability Somalia through loss of hundreds of lives to terrorist attacks, mostly by the terror group.
Kenyan forces moved to Somalia on October 16, 2011 to pursue insurgents group Al Shabaab after a series of kidnappings of tourists along the border.
Later the Kenyan government agreed to re-hat its forces under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), where they are involved in joint security operations.
Though the militia have extensively been weakened, they still have a capacity to launch pockets of attacks in Somalia and the region.
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