Leaders from N. Kenya launch drive to curb terror attacks

Political leaders from northern Kenya on Friday launched a peace drive aimed at eliminating cross border terror activities in the region.

More than 30 government officials and lawmakers led by Industrialization Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed and Majority Leader Adan Duale directed government administrators to be vigilant and expose Al-Shabaab elements and their sympathizers residing in Garissa, Wajir and Mandera counties which have suffered from increased terrorist activities. "It is high time that we walk the talk and stop this lip service that will not do us any good. Any parent whose child has been missing for a while should immediately report to the police since it is this individuals who resurface later only to carry out these deadly attacks," Duale said in Garissa county.

The peace drive came a week after the deadly attack at the Garissa University College which left 148 people dead.

The political leaders said that their mission is to fight head on Somali based militant and said they have started initiated several plans that will end subsequent terror attacks that have been targeting nonlocal in the region.

The leaders at the same time said they have started six days campaign to sensitize residents that will see leaders touring the three counties of Garissa, Wajir and Mandera.

"Ours is a joint effort to fight terrorist group and to counter radicalization in our institutions, our main objections as leaders is to ensure never again heinous terrorist act will happen in our region, we will also talk to religious leaders in the region," said Duale.

He added that the chiefs who failed to monitor and report criminal activity within their localities would be held responsible for any security breach in those areas. The leaders were speaking during a security forum with the local administrators.

They also called on the chiefs and their assistants to activate their intelligence gathering units in order to be able to identify strange individuals in their localities.

"The main problem with these people is that in Somalia they kill Muslims every day while in Kenya they separate Muslims from Christians before killing them. We should own up security of our region and every leader should take up responsibility to ensure these people don't live within our society," said Duale.

The lawmakers, governors and some government officials urged the administrators to strengthen the "Know your Neighbor" initiative as one way of dealing with matters of insecurity. Endi