Muslim Blog Muslim BlogNAIROBI – A new report by an international think-tank has called on the Kenya government to urgently address current and historical injustices against the Muslim community in the country, which are driving some youths to join outlawed groups like Al Shabaab.
“Across the spectrum of Kenyan Muslim opinion, there is a clear message: as well as historical grievances, the state’s “counter-terrorist” operations are a primary driver toward extremism,” the report, by the International Crisis Group, a global think-tank that analyses conflicts around the world, reads.
The ICG publication, titled “Kenya: Al-Shabaab – Closer to Home” takes issue with the continued institutional discrimination of Muslims in Kenya, especially in the issuance of national identity cards and passports, leaving many people stateless and unable to engage in socio-economic activities to uplift their standards of living.
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Released on Friday, the report indicated that counter-terrorism operations have been characterized by collective punishment and blame of Muslim communities.
The operations, the report says, were fomenting deep resentment and alienation inside the Muslim community, causing some Muslim youths to join criminal groups “to exact revenge.”
It has also asserted that injustices such as continued economic and political marginalization of Muslims in Kenya is leaving a gaping loophole that is being exploited by the Al Shabaab group to recruit members into their cause.
Al Shabaab, which operates from Somalia has been increasing deadly attacks and recruitment in Kenya since October 2011, when Kenyan soldiers crossed into Somalia.
But its tactics of indiscriminate attacks on non-combatants to pressure Kenyan soldiers to pull out of Somalia, have been repeatedly condemned by Muslims in Kenya.
Recommendation
Listing Muslim grieves, the report calls on the Kenyan government to enhance the performance of its anti-terrorism operations to avoid persecuting wider ethnic and faith communities.
The report appealed for a review of the operations of the police when they appear to target whole communities, and allow for transparent investigations and redress where operations are found to have exceeded rule of law/ constitutional rights and safeguards.
It cited the killing and disappearances of Muslim preachers and youths in Kenya at the hands of police, in the name of fighting terrorism, as only feeding into the narrative of anti-government resentment among Muslims.
“Renewed investigations into military and police operations, and clear state support for legal redress where constitutional rights have been infringed, would go some way to reassuring Kenyan Muslims that they are not being collectively punished for the actions of a few extreme individuals,” the report said.
The report called for the full implementation of the recommendation of the 2008 Presidential Special Committee to address institutional discrimination against Muslims such as issuance of identity cards and passports and better (proportional) representation of Muslims in senior public service appointments.
Just before the 2007 elections, the then-President Mwai Kibaki appointed a Presidential Special Action Committee to establish the Muslim community’s specific concerns against the government and how they can be addressed.
The committee found entrenched institutional discrimination against Muslims including in the issuance of national identity cards and passports. It established that counter-terrorism security agents were operating “without due regard to the existing law of the land”.
It also found that “the majority of Muslim-inhabited areas lag behind in development due to lack of public and private investments from years of marginalization”. Lastly the committee also pointed to the absence of Muslim representation in public service appointments “at the level of policy and decision-making”.
“The recommendations are yet to be substantively implemented, but if the Kenyan government is successfully to cut grassroots support for Al-Shabaab, entrenched institutional and socio-economic discrimination against Muslims should be addressed through implementation of the committee’s sensible recommendations,” concluded the ICG report.
