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Suspected Al-Shabaab fighter surrenders in Kenya border town

Xinhua, May 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

A suspected Al-Shabaab fighter on Thursday surrendered to police in Garissa county, northeastern Kenya, an official has said.

Garissa County Commissioner James Kianda said the militant voluntarily surrendered to a border police station on Tuesday evening after trekking for several kilometers from hinterlands of Somalia.

"We have interviewed him and we are convinced he is a person of a sound mind and we believe his claims that he is an Al-Shabaab defector. He told us that he was tired of the activities of the militia," Kianda said.

The 22-year-old man whose identity is not disclosed for security reasons joined the Somalia-based militant group in 2011 after dropping out of school in Garissa, the official said.

He said he made an escape from the militia in a bid to benefit from the government's amnesty offer to people like him.

There are many young Kenyans who have been "taken care of" by Al-Shabaab operating from within the country to assist the militants in carrying out attacks in Kenya, he revealed.

Dozens of youths linked to Al-Shabaab have fled Somalia to Kenya and are being harbored by their relatives following offensives by the Africa Union Peacekeeping Mission on the insurgents, the authorities say.

The government earlier offered an amnesty for those radicalized youth who had joined Al-Shabaab and would lay down their arms -- a measure to prevent them from carrying out attacks in the country.

However, so far only seven such people have surrendered to police.

The government says those who surrender within the amnesty period will be treated in dignified manner, protected from harm by Al-Shabaab and re-integrated into the society.

"I appeal to all youths from this county who joined this outfit (Al-Shabaab) for one reason or the other to come out and present themselves to the nearest police station or security agency without any fears of being prosecuted or mistreated," Kianda said.

A siege by Al-Shabaab gunmen on Garissa University in April left killed 148 people, mostly students. Endi