Help your children ditch Al Shabaab, urges Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya

The Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK) Thursday appealed to parents whose children may have gone to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab to convince them to return and surrender to Kenyan authorities.

CIPK was responding to a 10-day amnesty offered by Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery for such youths. CIPK also spoke a day after Christian leaders accused mainstream muslims of being indifferent to fundamentalists' attacks and hostile propaganda against Christianity.

CIPK said its preachers have also been victims of murder and attacks by muslim extremists. And Thursday, CIPK Organising Secretary Mohamed Khalifa said Islam does not support extremism.

"The youth can surrender to us before we hand them over to the Government," he said, adding that CIPK will embark on a three-month programme to combat radicalisation in Kwale, Kilifi, Lamu, Tana River, Lamu and Taita-Taveta.