The government has rescued five teenagers in Siaya from being radicalized and lured into going to Somalia, in what is suspected to be recruitment to Al-Shabaab.
According to Siaya County Commissioner, the teenagers who hail from Nyadorera village in Siaya were among several who were being recruited in a cell formed about one year ago,
The five were believed to have been en route to Somalia when the government cornered them before they were able to leave the country.
It is said that they were to leave the country and go to Somalia via Tanzania, and so they were on the way to neighboring Tanzania when the intelligence caught up with them in Oyugis.
The five were said to have received information that police were looking for them when they reached Oyugis in Homabay county, after which they decided to go back to Nyadorera.
Siaya County Commissioner Michael Ole Tialal, however, reported that two other teenagers had managed to flee the country to Somalia, and are suspected to be undergoing recruitment with the Al-Shabaab.
The five teenagers who were rescued are being watched by the police and have been included among the youth set to benefit from an empowerment program funded by the European Union through the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) and Lake Basin Development Authority, for Siaya and Kisumu counties.
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“These are young children who still need guidance as much as they are already reformed. Even then, we are still putting them under scrutiny. We have their individual profiles so we know who they are and where they are,” said Mr. Tialal.
Mr. Tialal added that they also have information on the two other teenagers who managed to escape to Somalia and Nyadorera, despite being a small market area is currently on government radar since it serves as the radicalization space.
The police are still investigating two individuals who are believed to be the drivers of the radicalization cells that brainwashes and finally convinces teenagers to move into Somalia where they join the terrorist group.
The two ‘Muslim preachers’ are said to live in Busia and in Siaya near the Siaya-Busia border where they run radicalization cells