A “significant” number of youth who have been pursuing degrees in Kenyan universities have ended up falling into the traps of terrorists, according to local media.
Numbers of young men who become obtained by terrorist organisations reportedly die in battles in Libya, while young women are sold off as sex slaves to terrorist militants and are now struggling to get home.
The Daily Nation has learnt that security agencies – Kenya Police Service, Immigration department, Directorate of Criminal Investigations, National Intelligence Service, Probation Department and Kenya Prisons – are grappling with the calls for youngsters who have survived the terror network and are willing to return home.
Security agencies in Kenya have been painted a grim picture by confidential sources of what the youngsters’ lives are like in the hands of terrorists.
The most famous being, Farah Dagane Hassan, 26, and Hiish Ahmed Ali, 25, who were medical interns at Kitale hospital, and were killed in Libya during a sting operation against so-called Islamic State terrorists.
Months before the attack, they were labelled as “Wanted Terrorists”, and a Sh4 million (over USD38,000) bounty was placed on their heads after they were linked to a planned biological terror attack in Kenya.
Deputy secretary for Internal Security Thomas Sakah last Tuesday had warned that universities had become “centres of radicalisation and recruitment” by terrorists in Somalia and Syria.
There is also a growing concern for those still at large,who have been vulnerable to brainwashing and accepting travel to Libya to join the group.
“The world is grappling with a rise in radicalisation and movement of youth to terrorist theatres of Syria, Libya and Somalia.
“Members of the public must be on the lookout for radical elements who are seeking to mislead Kenyan youth and send them to terrorist arenas.
“While this trend is not rampant in Kenya as has been observed in other countries, some Kenyan youth have left the country to fight alongside Isis terrorists,” the dispatch reads.
Currently, a number of parents have approached the government after they received phone calls from cartels in Libya demanding money in exchange for their children.
Most of the victims are young women whose “supposed husbands” died in battle.
The report also reveals that there is a terror link to human trafficking and human organs harvesting criminal networks.
It says: “For those who are weak and whose organs cannot be harvested nor be sold to Isis, ransom is demanded from their families.”
The reports identifies the Magafe network, a human trafficking cartel that Isis depends on for the transportation of recruits.
So far, investigations have established 10 routes used by the Magafe network to transport terror recruits from Kenya to Syria and Libya.
