Police arrest 16 youths in Mosque over alleged terror links

Marsabit, Kenya: Police in Marsabit have arrested 16 youths in a Mosque over allegations of engaging in terror activities.

A contingent of armed police surrounded Karare Mosque in Saku constituency, Thursday evening following a tip-off by the public that ‘suspicious’ people were holed up in the facility for three days.

Police established that the group had spent three nights at the Mosque where they cooked and did their laundry without stepping outside the compound.They arrived in Karare on Monday afternoon.

The officers seized their food ration, sleeping bags, personal effects, laptops and mobile phones among others.

Locals said they did not see the group venture into the village to preach and were not aware what they were doing in the Mosque.

However, a Karare worshipper said the group were there on ‘Tabliq’ (public preaching) mission and denied engaging in radical sermons.

Yesterday, Marsabit Central Divisional police chief Mark Wanjala said the group mainly youth hail from Sololo in Moyale, Marsabit, Isiolo and Eastleigh in Nairobi.

Devastating attacks

“We arrested them on Thursday after a tip-off from the public. We are interested in their activities and we will hand them over to the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU),” said Mr Wanjala.

By yesterday 1pm, police were still interrogating the group, while Muslims from Karare who had attended the sermons are also expected to help in investigation to determine whether the youth have terror links including radicalisation of locals.

“Even radical sermons bordering on national security is a serious crime. In other words it’s called radicalisation. That is why we are talking to local Muslims who had been to that Mosque between Monday evening and Thursday afternoon,” said a source close to detectives undertaking the initial probe in Marsabit.

Police in Marsabit will hand-over the group to Nairobi based ATPU today along with mobile phones and other confiscated equipment.

Besides North Eastern counties of Garissa, Wajir and Mandera, the coast region and Nairobi, Marsabit is identified next as a source for recruitment of youth by Al-Shabaab that has carried out terror attacks in Kenya.

The terror watch on Marsabit is provided by Western nations that include the US and UK and shared with Kenya’s National Intelligence Service.

The most devastating attacks in the country by Al-Shabaab include the Westgate Mall where 68 were killed in 2013 and the recent Garissa University attack where 147 students were killed in cold blood.

Last December, 10 people among them three primary school teachers were arrested in Marsabit town on suspicion of radicalisation of youth or on recruitment mission for Al-Shabaab.

They were handed over to ATPU in Nairobi but later released after they were found innocent.

In August 2012, the Marsabit Security Committee reported that a local teacher and two students are among locals suspected to have gone to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab militants.

The report indicated that towards the end of 2011, a young female teacher from Badasa Primary School in Marsabit Central was suspected to have travelled to southern Somalia through Mandera to join a group that had left earlier.

A source at Marsabit District Security Committee said on August 7, 2012 the woman also influenced her younger sister, a Form Four leaver and a friend, a Form Four student at a private secondary school in Gilgil to join Al-Shabaab.

“The two girls travelled through Isiolo, Meru and Maua and joined the teacher in Mandera. They later travelled to Somalia together,” said the source.