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Somalia war: Kenya
on the spot over secret enlisting
Tuesday 8 October 2009 Shaaficiyah Media
Tension gripped Garissa Town on Wednesday
following claims that hundreds of youths were being recruited
secretly to fight in Somalia.
But before joining the army of Sheikh Sharif
Ahmed, the youths, it was further claimed, were first being
taken for military training at Manyani Paramilitary Camp in
Mombasa.
A group of parents who alleged that their
sons had already been recruited, raised the alarm. They said
that more than 300 youths aged between 18 and 30 years had
secretly been recruited in six locations of Garissa District.
Ongoing relocation
However, North Eastern provincial commissioner
James ole Serian dismissed the claims as rumours. “I
heard the rumours. I think this came about due to the ongoing
relocation of Somali refugees, who are mainly youths, to Kakuma.
Nevertheless, we shall investigate the matter,” the PC
said.
Claims about the recruitment of Kenyan youths
to fight in Somalia come a few days after the United States
Government said that unemployed Somali youths were targeted
for recruitment by the Al-Shabaab militia group.
The Al-Shabaab, alongside other militia groups,
has been fighting to oust the fragile Transitional Federal
Government of Somalia, which is supported by the US and other
Western powers. Garissa mayor Mohamed Gabow said he had personally
witnessed the recruitment.
Monthly salary
“It has been going on. The boys who have
been recruited have talked to us. They say they have been
promised a $600 (Sh44,000) monthly salary,” Mr Gabow
told the Nation by telephone. He claimed that those carrying
out the recruitment were senior military officers, adding
that the hiring was done in the cover of darkness.
“There are several National Youth Service
and military trucks which ferry the recruits,” the mayor
said. He alleged that the recruitment had been carried out
in Medina, Masalani, Riig, Adan and Iftin villages —
all in Garissa Town.
The civic leader noted that the last batch
of 95 recruits was confined at Bula Shabah, at the outskirts
of Garissa Town, before being ferried to Manyani. But the
Department of Defence (DoD) denied any involvement in the
recruitment of youth to fight in Somalia.
On Wednesday in Nairobi, DoD said it had information
that Somali militia groups had been engaging in massive recruitment
of fighters within refugee camps in the country.
Source: Daily Nation
Shaaficiyah Media
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