US funded program conducting trainings

Secondary School students in Malindi have been described as principal targets for recruitment by radicalized armed groups like the Somali based Alshabaab terror group.
Dr. Athman Mujahid an English Access provider in the US funded training program said most targeted are bright but needy students from poverty stricken families who are easily lured to join the gangs unknowingly.
Dr.Mujahid said the US funded program is meant not only to help students but even youths in the society who are vulnerable.
He said already the US Embassy is conducting training of teachers to enable them detect and handle students who may easily be lured to join illegal military groups.
Speaking at a hotel in Malindi at the weekend during a one day training Dr. Mujahid said, the program offered basic facilitation on peace and education to the trainers.
He also said it was important for the trainers to know the trends as recruiters of terror gangs no longer focus on the traditional hotspots.
“Recruiters are now targeting our schools, they are also going to areas less suspected such as Nyanza, Western and Eastern,’’ he said.
He said initially radicalization was only meant for certain ethnic groups or religion but of late every Kenyan is vulnerable including the Luo, Luhyas , Mijikenda among others.
Ms. Hadija Salim from Mombasa County who was among the beneficiaries of the training said she was now able to identify individuals in schools who are being recruited and help them avoid engaging in such illegal groups.
She said some of the signs of students who have joined such illegal groups in school shows they are silent and keep their issues.
She said recruited students are normally secretive whenever they go online accessing social sites such as Facebook.
By Simon Guruba