•Resilience and youth affairs county director says the policy was developed to create resilience and provide a guide for actors and non-state programmes.
•Munira Hamisi says it will guide the private sector on how to create job opportunities and economic empowerment, make residents resilient and avoid getting into violence.
The Mombasa county assembly has adopted a resilience and violence extremism policy to help prevent violent extremism cases.
The policy will promote strategies of co-existence and economic empowerment among state and non-state actors.
This will help in improving the peaceful and dignified lives of Mombasa residents.
The policy was developed to enhance participatory decision-making and increase civic space for the residents concerning extremism matters.
Resilience and youth affairs county director Munira Hamisi said the policy was developed to create resilience and provide a guide for actors and non-state programmes.
“The policy will sustain the prevention of violent extremism cases within the region,” she said
Hamisi said it will guide the private sector on how to create job opportunities and economic empowerment, make residents resilient and avoid getting into violence.
“In Mombasa, we have issues of cultural practices and, therefore, we are working towards bringing the foreign agenda through a special resilience programme under the directorate of resilience and youth affairs,” she said.
Hamisi said between 2013-14, violent extremism cases were high in Mombasa but through the county action plan, the cases were reduced.
“We have partnered with other stakeholders including the national counter-terrorism and the security centres to create awareness of violent extremism in the community,” she said.
Nominated MCA Amriya Boy who is the chairperson of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee said gender-based violence and violence extremism are related issues, which led to the policy development.
“We received a report on the alarming cases at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital and in police stations, and that is why we came up with a policy that can help us control the situation,” Boy said.
She said few people are being prosecuted in court compared to the number of cases reported.
“We do note in our policy to deal with violence cases, we have always been dependent on a national policy and that is why we came up with a policy that will help the victims get justice,” Boy said.
According to a report presented by the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee members, there are specific areas in the region that are vulnerable to the threat of radicalisation to violent extremism.
The report says drug abuse, high levels of poverty, unemployment among youths and land conflicts are some of the causes of violent extremism in Mombasa.
The policy is expected to provide a guideline for strategic planning and implementation of co-existence peace-building prevention of conflict and radicalisation and economic empowerment within the region.
The policy will differentiate the aspiration of the communities while presenting solutions at the same time.
The county resilience and prevention of violent extremism policy, 2021 will also help enhance the safety and security of Mombasa through sustainable peace building.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris