ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGE OF EXTREMISM AND RADICALIZATION IN KWALE COUNTY

It has been a very busy week for me trying to coordinate youth forum sessions in Kwale County to establish the likely causes of extremism and radicalization in Coast region generally and Kwale County in particular.

METHODOLOGY

Three youth were selected from each of the twenty electoral wards in Kwale County. They were then trained on how to conduct sessions at ward level to establish the root cause of poverty, extremism and radicalization. The youth were required to keep the relevant authorities informed of the activity.

The ward level youth forum sessions were done in a week's time with close supervision and regular updates done.

The youth were then invited for a two-day forum to discuss and share their findings. The 20 wards were merged at sub county levels to yield four groups.

A plenary discussion was held to contextualize the activity, after which break-away session based on the the four sub counties were done. The session informed the collocation of issues affecting Kwale County.

FINDINGS

Eleven issues were identified as the challenges affecting the youth in Kwale County. In order of intensity, the list presents the issues as raised :

1. POOR LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE

was identified as the major cause of extremism and radicalization. The respondents felt that lack of visionary leadership based on strategic management is to blame for the state of affairs.

2. CORRUPTION

This was ranked number 2. The respondents felt that abuse of office by government officials and lacking integrity, transparency and accountability is to blame for the status of the youth. They complained the high cost of doing business diminishes returns. Besides, the youth do not have proper identification documents due to the hidden charges of acquiring them.

The police service was also identified as very corrupt and intimidating. They officers often arrest innocent youths on accusation of engaging in either terror related activities or drug and substance abuse.

3. UNEMPLOYMENT

This came as challenge number three in the list of the challenges affecting the youth in Kwale County. A sizeable majority of the youth in Kwale are jobless. Most of them use the available time in non-productive activities. As the potentially most productive segment of society, the unemployed youth may engage in any activity that would keep them busy including engaging in criminal and terror-related activities.

4. RESOURCE CONFLICT

A majority of Kwale County residents do not yet have title deeds for their lands. Land conflict has been the main resource conflict affecting the residents. Other resources that are a source of conflict are water points and grazing lands.

5. LOW LEVEL OF EDUCATION

The level of education in Kwale County is very low. The County is among the worst performers in national exams, both at primary and secondary level. At the moment, there is one university campus, the Technical University of Mombasa. The 200-student Campus is located in Mabokoni in Ukunda. There are however a number of tertiary institutions including youth polytechnics and the Kenya Medical Training College. However, the psyche to enrol into these institutions is still low. In some cases, there are no applicants due to the required minimum secondary school pass mark. A case in point is the offer by Base Titanium Company to sponsor 10 youths from Msambweni Sub County for any course offered by the Kenya Medical Training College. In the first year of the sponsorship, only three young people had achieved the pass mark. Seven positions were therefore wasted.

6. NEGATIVE PEER PRESSURE

This came sixth in the ranking. Due to the high illiteracy levels and the remoteness of some of the areas within the county, there is no role modelling in these areas. The youths are their own advisors and role models. Since they are almost all of the same level of education and exposure, they end up lacking proper guidance on the way of life. They learn to accept any information (and often misinformation) that comes their way. The youth forums in these remote areas would therefore degenerate to forums to discuss non-productive, and often criminal activities. This would continue as the population swells, thereby enhancing the vicious cycle.

7. DRUG AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE

This was also identified as a major challenge amongst the youth in the county. This could be attributed to the readily available means through the ocean. Statistics indicate that 54% of the youth in Kwale County are affected by drug abuse.

8. LACK OF LAND OWNERSHIP DOCUMENTS

This matter affects a huge population in Kwale County. Land related conflicts have been steadily increasing as some people are selling land whose ownership cannot be easily ascertained.

9. POOR RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOUTH AND SECURITY AGENCIES

The relationship between the youth and the security agents has been deteriorating. Despite the police reforms that being implemented, the youth have a negative attitude whenever they interact with the police. The police are accused of mishandling innocent youth and intimidating them. Since most of the Al Shabaab members are young Muslims, the police are being accused of profiling suspects based on their religious affiliation. This creates suspicion between the youth and police hence affecting their relationship. Besides, police were accused of soliciting huge bribes from the youth in exchange for freedom from police custody.
The police are said to be lacking in integrity. They do not protect the identity of the civilians who report the unbecoming conduct of their colleagues. This further complicates a case while endangering the life of the citizens who report police misconduct.

10 TRIBALISM

This is done by favouring someone on the basis of his ethnic background for public goods like employment and awarding of tenders and government loans. Though Kwale County is dominated by two communities of the Digo and the Duruma, there are many other ethnicities both within the larger Mijikenda group and ethnicities from mainland. Tribalism is therefore observed in allocation of public resources at both levels of government. The business community also suffers the brunt tribalism through the buying patterns. A buyer would most likely purchase a commodity from a shop owned by his or her tribes mate.

11. RETROGRESSIVE CULTURE

Culture is a people’s way of doing things. It is the totality of the daily routine of a community based on its socialization. The residents of Kwale County have some cultural practices that are retrogressive to development. These include early marriages, polygamy and wife bartering among others. Some of the communities consider girls as a source of income at the time of marriage, and therefore they don’t deserve education.

12. LACK OF YOUTH FRIENDLY SERVICES

The youth are not well served by the government. Though the national government introduced Huduma Centres to ease public service delivery, the available facilities are not adequate for the surging number of clients. There is need to increase the coverage of these services to ward levels I order to reduce the distance covered in search for these services and also to reduce the probability of bribery.
The services could be better still made online since most of the youth spend time on the internet. Other services that are youth friendly include recreational facilities like sporting and enterprise. The government was asked to enhance the capacity of the many devolved funds to the youth, women and persons with disability. Awareness campaigns may also be considered to enlighten the youth on the need to be self-reliant.