On the enemy side? Riddle of missing KDF-trained youth

Young Somali youths with AK 47 machine guns shortly after receiving them from Kenya Defense Forces at the Kenya-Somalia border town of Burahache in 2010. The youths, who were trained by the Kenyan military, were taken to Somalia to fight Al Shabaab. [Photo: George Mulala/standard]

Nairobi, Kenya - As the government moves ahead with an expensive project to build a controversial security fence on sections of Kenya’s 700 km border with Somalia to keep out terrorists, it has a bigger headache.

Thousands of youths recruited six years ago to fight alongside Somali troops are now battle- hardened men in the early 30s. Quite a number have returned home bitter after the government failed to pay the Sh 255,000 ($3000) per month it promised them when they accepted the offer in 2009.