250 Al Shabaab returnees are suspected to be hiding in Kwale, Mombasa, Lamu and Kilifi amid Kenya’s call for amnesty among Al Shabaab youth who are willing to defect from the militia group.
Sources have confirmed that these al shabaab returnees sneaked back into the country through the Kenya-Somali border following their graduation from the Al Shabaab training camps in Somalia.
This threat of well trained and armed Al Shabbab returnees in Kenya comes at a time when the Kenyan government last week made an amnesty offer to Kenyans fighting with Somali’s Al Shabaab militant group in Somalia, assuring the returnees that they will not be victimized in any way.
These Al Shabaab returnees present in Kenya are suspected to have sneaked back following the massive US drone strike in Somalia which killed key Al Shabaab operative Adnan Garaar who was a member of the Al Shabaab’s intelligence and security wing.
Some of the suspected hideouts in which the police are conducting a thorough search for these Al Shabaab returnees include the Diani mosque and Kona ya Musa mosque in Kwale county which are also being suspected to be radicalizing youth in the Coastal region.
Al Shabaab returnees in Kenya could pose a huge threat at a time when most schools have closed and the youth are at a greater risk of joining radicalization groups. This therefore places a major alert on the police, clerics, parents and independent organization leaders to look out for these youth who are a source of this threat.
-intelligencebriefs.com
