The National Government has launched a new strategy aimed at countering terrorism and violent extremism in the country along the key hot spots which are threatened by the terrorists from Somalia.
The new approach which is in addition to the many strategies of combating the Alshabaaab militants from Somalia is aimed at strengthening information sharing from the grassroots at counties which are easy targets for radicalization.
Currently, the counter-terrorism unit team in the Kenya Defense forces is conducting training for county government law enforcement officers with a view to enable them to get a scope of the war against terrorism.
Already the training has been done in Mombasa, Kwale, and are now going on in Kilifi county where the enforcement officials are undergoing a thorough three-day training on how to counter violent extremism.
Canal Harun Rashid who is the lead trainer from the counter-terrorism unit said since the war against Alshabaab begun over 10 years ago they have learned so many things from the enemy and the battle is far from over.
Speaking in a Kilifi hotel during the three-day training he said the program is being implemented by officers from the National counter-terrorism center and KDF.
”Soon we will be coming with more intensive training in the near future, there will be a longer-term which will compose of the national police service, KWS, and all other multi-agency security teams,” he said.
Rashid said the aim is to come up with a unified approach in fighting against the terror threat in the country.
He said they came to realise that the county enforcement in the devolved units have a major role to play and will now explain at large the threat of security.
Harun said they want to share their experiences after being in the war zone Somalia for over a decade and got a lot of information which will be given out for the first time.
Just like the covid 19 pandemic, he said the terrorism war is here to stay and require different approaches to deal with.
”Just at our neighbouring country Somalia terrorism remains a major threat as they are always planning to launch attacks to the country,” he said.
Harun said after the training the enforcement officers will have learnt new skills on the approach of countering violent extremism.
Kilifi county Deputy Governor Gideon Saburi was the chief guest during the training said terrorism was a major threat in the country as some of the terrorists are within the communities.
He urged the county enforcement teams to take the training seriously and be aware that some of the information would touch on people who are in the families which require that they treat any information with confidentiality.
Saburi said those dealing with traffic, licences, security all interact with different people on daily basis and it will enable them after the training to identify suspected terrorists.
”Our enforcement team is being trained on counter-terrorism and we are happy KDF is bringing in the knowledge to the officers so as to help in the war against terrorism,” he said.
He said currently tourism has really gone down and it’s timely for the training as the government strives to do all means to recover the sector which was highly affected.
With the training, he said the enforcement teams will have the know-how on the issue of terrorism and even radicalisation which is within the society.
Saburi said some youths easily fall prey to the agents who recruit terrorists and radicalise them.
Kilifi he sid has the longest shoreline that is not very far from Somalia and there are some terrorism activities which sometimes take place that shall easily be addressed with the joint effort in the war.