Police warn of renewed radicalisation of youths in Mombasa

Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa addressing the Press at the County Commander Robert Kitur’s (right) office Monday. Marwa has said the ongoing operation of hunting illegal aliens in the country will go on. [PHOTO: KELVIN KARANI/STANDARD]

By WILLIS OKETCH

MOMBASA COUNTY: Security officials have disclosed that three Muslim clerics in Mombasa are radicalising youth and fanning religious fundamentalism.

This comes after an alert over renewed militancy in mosques in Majengo, Bondeni and Mwembe Tayari was issued.

The warning follows the emergence of a Kiswahili language Al Shabaab propaganda video on the Internet, which praises the September 21, 2013 terrorist attack on Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi.

It also follows an Easter anti-terror swoop in Mombasa in which 660 suspects including aliens were arrested. Mombasa Police Commander Robert Kitur said 188 suspects have since been set free after vetting while 472 will be charged in court this morning.

Counter-terrorism sources told The Standard that the ten-minute video was, most likely sanctioned by Kenyan fugitive jihadist Ali Ahmed Iman in February to entrench ties with Al Shabaab’s supreme leader in Somalia Ahmed Godane alias Mukhtar Abu al-Zubayr.

The video urges Kenyan Muslims to “leave and emigrate to Somalia” to fight jihad against Kenya, which is described as a land filled with “polytheism and disbelief”.

Although the faces of two armed militants in the video are covered, the man who reads the statement, justifying the Westgate massacre and warning of more violence, speaks in impetuous Kiswahili with a clear coastal Kenya accent and the man seated on the video’s extreme left is believed to be an Iman.

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And about 10 of the youths in the video, armed with AK47 riffles and a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) against a desert background are believed to be Nairobi and Mombasa natives.

According to analysts who spoke to The Standard, the purpose of the video is to not only recruit more Kiswahili speaking militants from Mombasa and other Kenyan towns but also reconcile Kenya foreign jihadists in Somalia with Godane who has lately killed many foreign jihadists after accusing them of spying.

Iman is the commander of Kenya’s foreign fighters in Somalia, who were recruited through Al Hijra, Kenya’s Al Shabaab affiliate, which was led by recently slain radical islamist Sheikh Sharif Abubakar alias Makaburi.

And Monday, Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa said a police base will be established in the volatile Majengo where two radical mosques-Musa and Sakina are located, to fight crime.

Mr Marwa and Mombasa County Police Commander Robert Kitur warned that hate preachers and militants are renewing their efforts in Mombasa.

They referred to an April 4 incendiary speech issued at Musa Mosque by an unknown preacher who called on Muslims to attack non-Muslims and cleanse Mombasa of infidels.

The speaker, through the mosque’s public address system, said that it is permissible for Muslims to bear offensive weapons and kill non-Muslims.