Terrorism
Religious leaders have been urged to reinvigorate civic education efforts at the community level to give impetus to the war against violent extremism. Nyanza Regional Commissioner (RC) Flora Mworoa said religious leaders were at a vantage position to reach out to the community, specifically the youth who are susceptible to radicalisation.
Sensitisation, she added, was critical in the fight against violent extremism since those prowling on Kenyan youths have shifted base to areas traditionally not suspected to harbour such activities. She pointed out the Nyanza region was previously not among the hot spots but has now been infiltrated with several cases reported.
“People think that the Nyanza region is not prone to violent extremism but last year we had a case where one policeman was killed and another injured. That is when people realized we had sleeper cells here,” she said.
Speaking in Kisumu during the second round of public engagement exercises by the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC)to validate the counter-terrorism draft document, Mworoa asked religious leaders to make use of the pulpit to keep worshipers in check since the threat of terrorism was real.
This, he said, will not only create awareness but also keep the community alert as measures to deal with violent extremism are intensified across the country. She added that technology advancement posed a major challenge in the war against violent extremism calling for concerted efforts to monitor what the youth consume online to ensure they are not radicalised.
She asked parents to entrench discipline in their children and monitor their activities to ensure they don’t fall into wrong hands. The Regional Boss divulged that security agencies have been put on high alert and were continuously updating their systems to thwart terror threats.
The forum was attended by representatives from the civil society, security agencies, government officers and the general public who gave their views on the National Strategy to Counter Violent Extremism.