For the past
few months, the Government of Kenya has been on high alert due to Al Shabaab,
and MRC activities in the region. In
addition, they have been monitoring the activities of radicalized youth in
Mosques where the radical youth have ejected and sometimes killed moderate
clerics and assumed leadership positions in the running of these Mosques.
Once
they take control of the Mosques, they have used them as launching pads to intimidate
non Muslims and even kill and harass Muslims who do not subscribe to the radical
messages. These youthful radicals preach
hatred for non Muslims urging their followers to kill those who don’t agree
with them. Attacks such as the one witnessed recently of a Mombasa University
Lecturer was perpetrated by the radicalized youth who now want to become a law
unto themselves.
They have become a
danger to religious unity and to Kenya as a country. These violent Muslim youths have been
receiving financial and PR support from foreign funded very vocal groups and
individuals based in the coastal region and who have themselves been
propagating foreign ideas including turning Kenya into a caliphate.
For months
now, the security forces claim that they received information about the
presence of arms in Mosques that the radicalized youth have taken over from
moderate Sheikhs to advance the establishment of a caliphate. This information
led the security forces to carry out a raid in Sakina and Musa Mosques on
November 17, 2014.
The following are the results of that raid: Sakina Mosques:
6 persons arrested; and the following items were found: 1 pistol, 3 hand
grenades, 2 machetes, 1 knife, 2 laptops with information on radicalization,
and a CPU. In Musa Mosque: 15 persons
were arrested and the following items recovered: 2 hand grenades, substance
that police suspect is for making IEDs and other items of security nature.
251 persons
were arrested in general swoop outside of the two mosques. One radicalized
youth was shot dead when he attempted to kill security officers by throwing a
hand grenade at officers.
We are
greatly concerned about the following: those dangerous weapons including hand
grenades are being hidden in mosques that the radicalized youth have taken over.
It is worth noting that one hand grenade can kill up to 20 persons and can
injure even more people. A total of six grenades were hidden in the mosque and
no one can tell Kenyans or the world that the dangerous weapons were meant to preach
Islam or peace.
The other concerns
relate to the culture now taking place in Kenya where the Security forces are
castigated for not taking firm action and when they do they are still damned.
PLEASE NOTE:The views presented in this article do not in any way represents those of Intellectus Consultancy
