• Mudavadi says the international community should empower unemployed youths, other vulnerable groups and push for good leadership to address terrorism.
• He says active inter-agency and intergovernmental approaches will however only solve part of the problem.
Issuance of travel advisories will not end terrorist attacks, Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi has said.
Musalia who is currently in Boston said it is high time for Kenyan allies who have exposed the country of being a target of terrorism activities to help deal with the problem.
The former deputy prime minister told the United States of America, Israel, and the United Kingdom among others that terrorists are globally networked and issuing travel advisories will not protect them.
Musalia said terrorism has destroyed jobs and business opportunities as well as the image of the country and its high time all security stakeholders came together to address the spiraling crime.
“Unemployed and frustrated youth all over the world are easy targets for recruitment and radicalization into terrorism. Individual nations’ challenges can no longer be looked at as their own “isolated business” against which we can issue travel advisories and assume that we are safe away from those spaces,” Musalia said.
Musalia was presenting his paper titled ‘Terrorism: a focus on Kenya and the Eastern Africa region’ to the University of Massachusetts, united states of America.
He said terrorism was evolutionary and elusive in character as terrorists are highly mobile, diverse, resilient and dynamic in nature targeting the unemployed youths.
“Kenya’s historical cordial relations with Western nations and their allies, and especially with the United States of America, Israel, and the United Kingdom, have contributed immensely to the country’s vulnerability as a target for international terrorism,” Musalia said.
He said Kenya adopted a multi-agency framework to address the terrorist threat, a strategy that has led to a downward trend in terror incidents.
He added that the international community should empower unemployed youths and other vulnerable groups in the country.
“Active inter-agency and intergovernmental approaches will however only solve part of the problem,” he added.
He called for a proactive inter-agency and intergovernmental efforts to reverse the spread of terrorist activities.
“This would require continued adjustment of strategy and deployment of resources to effectively block the growth of terrorism and create a secure environment for economic and social activities,” he said.
He said terrorism is likely to remain the foremost threat to security due to the continued proliferation and expansion of terrorist groups.
He asked the international community to stop ignoring fragile or failing states just because they are thought to be too far.
“Every state and its stability must today be everyone’s concern. Recent examples in Europe and in the United States show that terrorists who are bred in countries that are so far away from us will in the fullness of time be deployed against us," he said.
"We must nip them in the bud by denying them breeding grounds. The factors that make states fail everywhere in the world must be addressed.'
“ It may be bad governance, corruption, poverty, unemployment, or ailing economies. If these concerns exist in any one country, we now must all address them not as an act of philanthropy, but as a matter in which we understand that we are involved,” he said.