Joho seeks US support to combat extremism

Mombasa County government has sought assistance from the United States Congress to help his administration enhance its capacity to counter violent extremism on the Kenyan coast.
 Governor Hassan Ali Joho said on Monday that the Mombasa county government has already established a Counter Violent Extremism (CVE) policy and department to be chaired by Lewa Tendai Mtana who is the county minister in charge education.

In February this year the Governor was appointed the Chair of the Communications and Counter Narrative Working Group of the Strong Cities Steering Committee at last year's 70th anniversary of the UN General Assembly in New York to combat extremism. The committee is meeting in Istanbul, Turkey.
In recent years Mombasa has faced threats of violent extremism ignited by either religious, political militants or assassinations blamed on State agents and extremists leading to bloody confrontations.
Currently, the county city and the Kenyan coast is faced with threats of battle hardened al Shabaab returnees although both the county government and the national government have come up with measure to de-radicalize them, however there has been no terrorist attack in Mombasa blamed on militants since mid 2014.
"The county through the said office has held engagements with the US Congress Sub-Committee on African Affairs, and through USAID Kenya which aims to enable the County Government of Mombasa build its policy design and implementation, resource mobilization and public service capacity to counter violent extremism," said Joho in a statement from Turkey on Monday evening.
He said it has also initiated talks with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) which he said had committed to support Mombasa County's approach to CVE.
Joho said USIP has undertaken to build the capacity of Policy Makers within African Cities and support local community projects build resilience against the said violence.
Joho attended the inaugural Global Strong Cities Steering Committee on Countering Violent Extremism and in February of 2016 he was appointed the Chair of the Communications and Counter Narrative Working Group of the Strong Cities Steering Committee
The group intends to resource a technical team, research, economist, public policy analyst, and communication and program managers to assist 12 cities across the globe to deal with CVE.
The County Executive Committee has already approved the design of a County Government of Mombasa draft Countering Violent Extremism Policy to support the local and Pan-African efforts initiated by the Governor.
It also approved the Executive Office of CVE Policy which now acts as the Secretariat of the CVE initiatives with a technical team at Committee level and three liaison officers in charge of policy analysis, research and communication.
"My participation at the Summit in Turkey will be my inaugural meeting and working session with the Secretariat of this working Group. This appointment will be an opportunity to further enhance my leadership in the fight against violent extremism in Mombasa," said Joho.