Lessons from Kenya’s Coast and why extremism is a global burden

Terror suspects (from left) Nasra Hyder, Salim Mohamed Rashid, Aisha Faiz Hyder and Fatuma Mohamed Rashid (partly hidden) at the Shanzu Law Courts in Mombasa last week. [PHOTO: file/STANDARD]

Last week, the Anti-Terrorist Police Unit (ATPU) arrested eight people in Mombasa and Mtwapa for suspicion of engaging in terrorist activities. According to the police, two of them, Nasra Faiz, 27, and Salim Rashid, 21, had been deported from Turkey whilst en route to Syria to join the so called Islamic State (IS).

Recent trends, in extremist recruitment and radicalisation activities in Kenya, are discernible from these arrests.