OE Watch Commentary: The face of terrorism in Kenya is changing. As the accompanying excerpted article from the Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation states, the classic image of bushy-bearded men holding AK-47’s while a black flag flutters in the background is no longer the typical case in the country. Nowadays some terrorist groups are comprised of young college students – the article describes them as eloquent and charismatic – who do not come close to fitting the old description but yet are still as dangerous, perhaps even more so because their nondescript appearance does not draw as much scrutiny.
The article goes on to describe how these college students are recruited. Social media accounts for a significant portion of the recruits, especially if they are not media savvy and tend to believe that if it is posted, it is true. Indoctrination and conversion is also done by on-campus recruiters, essentially fellow students, who do not initially reveal that they are associated with terrorist groups. Slowly, they can convince some of their fellow students of the rightness of their cause, a process facilitated by ready access to the aforementioned social media sites. As a result, with very little resources, al-Shabaab has been able to recruit beyond its territory in Somalia.
Another group being targeted for recruitment as terrorists is Kenyan women, with at least 100 having reportedly joined al-Shabaab and ISIS. Over the past three years at least 20 of them have been killed. In one incident in 2016, three of them were killed while attacking a police station in Mombasa with grenades and knives. Children are also not immune from being recruited. According to the National Police Service Director of Communications, some as young as six years old have carried out raids. Their youth also makes their movements less suspicious, and as such, they have been used to plant IEDs on roads.
Kenya’s struggle with terrorism notably includes the Westgate Mall attack in September 2013 which left over 60 dead and 175 wounded, and the Garissa University College attack in April 2015 which left 148 dead and over 7 injured, with most of the casualties students. There have been numerous other attacks that may not have gained as much international attention as the Westgate Mall or Garissa University College incidents, but still resulted in many deaths and injuries. Against this backdrop of ongoing terrorism, many believe Kenyan authorities need to develop new ways to detect terrorists, because the old descriptions do not always fit. End OE Watch Commentary (Feldman)
Terrorist groups are now made up of university students, young, charismatic and eloquent youths who have been brainwashed and ready to kill.
The situation is complicated by the widespread availability and accessibility of social media.
With apps such as Signal and Telegram, which guarantee almost complete anonymity, people are often approached by their peers then added to the group chat apps for more indoctrination and conversion.
The United Nations Security Council expressed concerns in February that under the new conditions, terrorist organisations are expanding and strengthening the network of cells, most of which operate with a certain degree of autonomy, making it difficult for governments to detect them.