MOMBASA/NAIROBI: Kenya must win a battle against militant ideology that is seeping in from its northern neighbour and spreading to Muslim youths at home if it is to stop Somali Islamists extending their reach in east Africa.

After two attacks in 10 days by Somalia’s al Shabaab group that killed more than 60 people, President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to step up his “war on terror” to halt raids across the porous border and stop any dream of making an Islamic Caliphate.

In Somalia, he can point to military gains where Kenyan and other African troops have retaken territory from al Shabaab, but he faces a more stubborn enemy on home soil where security forces are trying to drive out militancy from mosques.

“The only language these kafirs (non-Muslims) can understand is the bullet from the AK-47 rifle,” a Kenyan preacher told worshippers at Mombasa’s Mina mosque last month before police shut it down – with three others – detaining about 100 youth.

Such tough tactics may temporarily silence the radical voices but it also fuels anger that helps militants find new recruits and deepens the homegrown threat, Muslim activists say.

This is where al Shabaab may have a trump card. While it has been driven out of major Somali strongholds, a military offensive in Somalia has not stopped the group spreading its ideology and finding enough loyal foot soldiers for attacks that need little more than dedication to the cause and a few rifles.

Cohorts of frustrated and often jobless Muslim youths in the sweltering port city of Mombasa and along the coast, where most Kenyan Muslims live, offer fertile ground for the Islamists.

Source:Reuters