BY BRIAN OTIENO

CONCERNED: Mombasa Trade executive Ahmed Abdi, National Land Commission member Abdukadir Khalif and Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow at Pride Inn Hotel in Mombasa on Saturday.

Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow has said the Somali community is unfairly prejudiced as either terrorists or their sympathisers by security agencies and other communities.

Speaking on Saturday during a forum to sensitise the Somali community living in Mombasa, Kerrow said the Security Laws (Amendment) Act 2014 makes it even easier for security agencies to convict Somalis on terrorism charges.

“Some people in this country believe terrorists are Somalis. These include security agencies, other government officials and even normal citizens,” he said.

Kerrow said this prejudice has made more than 500 teachers from other counties refuse to report to Mandera county this term.

“This is because they believe the people who killed our brothers in Mandera last year are local Somalis in my county,” he said.

The legislator said there is a school of thought in the country that all Somalis are either al Shabaab members or sympathisers.

He said the Security Laws (Amendment) Act will affect the Somali community as it gives sweeping powers to security agents, some of whom believe any Somali is a terrorism suspect.

Somali Community Development Initiative Mombasa county chair Mohamed Abdi said it is important for the community to understand the contents of the Act.

“They say ignorance of the law is not a defence. So we need to understand what the law has so that we know what will harm us,” Abdi said.

Kerrow said the law was passed despite them putting up a spirited opposition to it. He said the law makes it easier for the government to get a conviction for terrorism-related offences in the courts.

“Fair trial is thus undermined,” Kerrow said.

He said freedom of speech, media freedom and personal privacy have greatly been undermined by the Act.

Kerrow said the law introduces new offences, which he believes could easily be abused against the Somalis.

“They (security agencies) have been given more powers, which will bring us problems, to deal with insecurity,” he said.

Source: The Star