MUHURI moves to counter radicalisation, violent extremism in Lamu

A county-based action plan aimed at fighting radicalization and countering violent extremism-CVE has been launched in Lamu County.

The initiative targets youth with an overall objective to foster peace, unity and harmony among communities and all religions in the county.

It incorporates the interfaith, security personnel, community and religious leaders, and the media under the sponsorship of the Muslims for Human Rights-MUHURI through the Joint Initiative for Strategic Religious Action-JISRA.

The MUHURI coordinator in Lamu county Mohamed Skanda said the action plan seeks to empower and promote peace, security, and cohesion in the county following incidents of insecurity caused by Al-Shabaab attacks.

It also seeks to quell and political, religious, and ethnic tensions amongst the various communities in the county.

“The action plan also seeks to cross-cut the multi-stakeholder approach in addressing the emerging tensions and insecurities in Lamu County and it will majorly be led by interfaith members,” said Skanda.

He said as an organization, they had observed a growing tension among the various ethnic groups in the county which he attributed majorly to the frequent terror attacks.

“Such things result in hatred and ill feelings between people and communities. There has been a subsequent spread of misleading propaganda in line with the same which has resulted in religious and tribal divisions,” said Skanda.

He observed that as a result, people have been using social media platforms to attack and pit various groups against each other.

Skanda stated that MUHURI is committed to achieving reconciliation and understanding by ensuring all religions, security, community leaders, and the media work together towards bridging the gap.

“The objective of this action plan is to enhance peace, tolerance, and collaboration. By doing so, we will be able to change the perception of radicalized youth and counter violent extremism as a whole,” said Skanda.

According to the chairperson of the Coast Interfaith Council of Clerics-CICC Mohamed Abdulkadir, the segregation of the Lamu youth especially in matters of provision of and access to government services like ID cards had made the youth rebellious to the law.

He said as a result, many have easily found themselves susceptible to joining criminal and terror gangs as their own way of expressing their pent-up anger against the government and the way it treats them.

“We are youth who have hit their 30s and have never owned an ID card and efforts to apply for the same have simply been made impossible. Such people become bitter and vengeful seeing us others are easily accessing the same service,” he said.

The cleric mentioned that the increased extra-judicial killings and the mysterious disappearances at the hands of security agencies have fueled bad blood between a section of the community and security arms in the region.

According to the chairperson of the Lamu County Interfaith Peace Forum Ibrahim Shahibu, the action plan launch comes right on time seeing as many terror attacks in the region are designed to divide communities.

“The one who orchestrates these attacks makes sure that they are done to pit one community and religion against another. What they want is to divide and rule. So far, a seed of doubt and hatred has been sowed but we need to overcome it,” said Shahibu.

He reiterated that Islam is a peaceful religion and that those linked to terrorism as simply a few misled misfits who will stop at nothing to distort the peace and stability of the region.

Lamu county assistant commissioner Phillip Oloo promised to ensure the issue of ID card issuance is looked into as soon as possible.