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African Focus: Kenya's police steps up surveillance on social media to fight terror

Xinhua, August 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

Kenya's security agencies said they have stepped up surveillance on social media in the fight against terrorism with specific focus on the youth.

National Counter Terrorism Centre Director Isaac Ochieng said a number of youths in Nairobi are spending several hours on terror related websites for recruitment into extremist groups.

Ochieng told a forum on terrorism in Nairobi later Tuesday that those targeted are trooping to Syria where they have joined Islamic State (ISIS).

"More than 20 Kenyan youths, most of them university students, have either flown or driven out of Nairobi headed to Syria in the past months. The rate of radicalization is alarming and needs urgent measures to contain it," said Ochieng.

Kenya has been a soft target for terrorist activities since 1998 and the menace has evolved as radical groups from the Horn of Africa infiltrate the country to kill and maim innocent civilians.

Security experts believe that the larger scale terror attacks at the Westgate Shopping mall in 2013 and in April at Garissa University where over 200 people were killed and over 250 others injured in both incidents by Al-Shabaab confirmed that militants have found a safe haven in the East Africa's largest economy.

According to Ochieng, the Surveillance on Internet usage shows the young people especially in universities spend long hours on terror related websites learning various issues on how they can join the groups.

He said most of those who are joining the terror groups think it is fashionable to do so, noting that a combination of internet, peer pressure and religion also account for why 20 and young people are joining extremist organisations, given that most of them were between 25.

Ochieng said 100 youths who had crossed the country's porous border to Somalia to join terror group Al-Shabaab have come back and surrendered to authorities.

He urged parents to always monitor the behavior of their children and report to authorities.

"When you find a son starting to question parents at home why they are behaving in a certain way or why their sisters are not covering their heads then, you know things have changed," he said.

Participants observed poverty, poor development and marginalization were also the drivers of the youths into the extremist groups and urged for all to support and monitor devolution.

Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro said they have profiled all those who have been reported to them as missing or having joined the terror groups.

Kenya has been playing a pivotal role in ensuring that terrorism and other forms of criminal activities threatening the country's security were minimized if not eliminated. Endit