The Health ministry sounds like a broken record to Kenyans after nearly two years of Covid updates, except on the Kenya-Somalia border, where al Shabaab has tried its best to counter that with conspiracy theories.
They made propaganda incursions even before the first case was reported in Kenya or Somalia, telling locals that Chinese and Western intelligence agencies developed the virus in a lab to eliminate Muslims and sowing suspicion of health workers.
Eight months since vaccination began, Northern counties lag behind in uptake. For instance, Garissa, Mandera, Wajir and Marsabit have only vaccinated 1.9 per cent, 1.8 per cent, 1.5 per cent and 1.4 per cent of their target population respectively with the first dose.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe, however, blames the low rate on poor coordination and lack of efficiency by the county governments, not vaccine hesitancy.
It all started in the wee hours of February 19 last year, when border community members from the Sinay border post in Kenya were preparing to do business with their Somalia counterparts from Kolbiyo.
Other community members were preparing to herd their livestock across the border and return to the Kenyan side of the border before dusk.
Suddenly, a group of al Shabaab youths stormed their village. They preached about Covid-19 for two hours and ordered the community to reject any medical intervention from the Kenyan Health ministry.
The terrorists-cum-preachers were using loudspeakers and telling the community that the coronavirus was developed in a Chinese lab. They showed a propaganda video showing dead bodies piling up in a Chinese hospital and the Chinese premier apologising to the Muslim community over the development of the virus.
The video was broadcast in Somali language, an indication it was made by al Shabaab's media unit for the purposes of spreading fear and fake news regarding the pandemic.
The group played the video through their smartphone and connected to a portable speaker, which could reach 100 people.
"The al Shabaab fighters ordered us to pray and go about our business as a Western and Chinese plot to eliminate Muslims has flopped," said Aydrus Bishar, an elder in Sinay.
The al Shabaab fighters ordered us to pray and go about our business as a Western and Chinese plot to eliminate Muslims has flopped
TIES THAT BIND
Communities residing on both sides of the Kenya-Somalia border share the same culture, language and clan lineage, and are only artificially divided by the international border.
However, the Somalis residing on the Kenyan side of the border are more worried about incursions and attacks by al Shabaab militants operating on the porous border separating the two countries.
"Apart from the border separating us, al Shabaab activities and operations separate the two Somali communities," said Abdi Shukri, a resident on the Kenyan side.
Local elders say the terrorist group invested in recruiting and training local youths from the Kenyan side of the border and deploying them to their area of origin to undertake the group's mission.
"They recruited youths from various villages along the border and they are the ones holding brief on behalf of the terrorist group," Shukri said.
The local trained youths formed and operated al Shabaab cells in various border towns, and they played a key role in spreading misinformation and propaganda on Covid-19.
In the fake video broadcast, the group told the community of plans by the Kenyan Health ministry to wage fake Covid-19 education and interventions in border areas.
They said they should reject such activities as they are meant to inject the community with suspicious vaccines, which will cause sterilisation and interfere with DNA.
"They told us Kenyan government wants to take advantage of Covid-19 and undertake some health campaigns in border areas, like vaccination from other diseases and general education," said Noor Kassim, a resident of Hulugho border post.
"They wanted us to oppose the move and give them information of such health personnel so as they can attack them."
SETTING RECORD STRAIGHT
After the video campaign, the local community got a different Covid-19 message from the Health ministry through the local Kenyan FM radio station.
By the end of February 2020, the ministry had strengthened its Covid-19 updates, though no case had been reported in Kenya by that period.
The Kenyan programme centered on Covid-19 events and spread in China and reported cases in neighbouring countries.
The radio update brought international experts' views on the coronavirus to local communities and also offered them tips on how to control and prevent the spread of the virus.
"We got new updates from local Kenyan Somali FM stations and they offered us knowledge and information on the spread of Covid-19 around the world," said Batula Abdirahman, who resides on the outskirts of Sinay village.
"It was different from the information we got from the al Shabaab video in Sinay village."
Kenyan radio programmes on Covid-19 saved Kenyan health personnel from terrorist attacks and roadside bombing incidents as the terrorist group was determined to deal with any health officials visiting the border areas for Covid-19 education or outreaches.
"By February and March, no Kenyan health official visited our border village, and al Shabaab were inquiring on a daily basis if any health officials planned to visit us," said Alinoor Boray, a community youth leader in Sinay border village.
Before the emergence of Covid-19, Garissa county in northern Kenya faced an unprecedented health crisis as many dispensaries and health centres were closed due to attacks by al Shabaab and targeting of non-local health personnel operating in the facilities.
"Even before Covid-19, a number of health centres and dispensaries were closed in Kenya-Somalia border areas and health personnel were evacuated and deployed in other parts of Kenya," said Khalif Hussein, a member of the Garissa Human Rights Network.
In early March 2020, al Shabaab activities in the border villages increased and new faces, which were not part of the normal al Shabaab youths based in the border areas, visited the villages with a view of ensuring the communities follow the group's guideline of addressing Covid-19.
Local elders later established the new al Shabaab men were from intelligence wing al Aminiyat, and they were to reinforce the work of the Islamist fighters-cum-preachers permanently stationed on the Kenya-Somalia border.
The new unit collected information from locals and also inquired the identity of people coming to the border towns from Garissa town.
"The new al Shabaab team was more intelligent and suave than the normal group fighters, who were stationed in border areas," said Gurey Abshir, who resides on the outskirt of Hulugho border post.
"They collected the names of Somali families and profiled them against their clan names and ensured they know everybody's background, history, relatives and work."
COUNTER-NARRATIVE
The new al Shabaab team forced the community to listen to radio Andalus, which is owned by al Shabaab and reaches some border towns.
Other radio programmes from the Islamist radio were recorded and played to a group of community members, with others charged with the mission of disseminating the radio programmes to herders at grazing area and watering points.
"I was picked by the group to take the recorded message to herders and traders plying between two border towns," says Gelmal Aress, a teenager based in Sinay.
"To ensure the message reaches its intended target, the group planted moles to report to them on the daily progress of the recorded radio listening programmes."
The young teenager realised the presence of the al Aminiyat spies in grazing fields and watering points when he shortened the recorded radio listening session and decided to turn back to his village, which was located between Hulugho and Sinay border towns.
"I was tired of the al Shabaab assignment and decided to cut short the recorded Andalus radio programme by one hour," a visibly shaken Aress recalled.
"After two days, the new al Shabaab group picked me from my homestead and I was beaten and given a last warning that I will lose my life and my family members will be wiped out. One of them told me, 'We have our people in the watering point and grazing areas.'"
After the ordeal, he escaped from the al Shabaab radio programme and trekked five days before reaching Fafi border outpost, where he sought support to travel to Garissa town.
"I managed to escape and I know al Shabaab will not harm my family members in the border town due to the influence our clan holds in the area. I know they are looking for me," Aress said from his Garissa town hideout.
UNFAZED BY SECURITY FORCES
Residents say the presence of Kenyan security forces in Amuma and Hulugho does not deter the Islamists. They have invested in the community through recruitment, radicalisation and empowering trained local youths to establish al Shabaab cells in their areas.
"Al Shabaab has upper hand in the border region because of their local investment and establishment of cells headed by locals," said Mooge Garad, who relocated to Nunow village from Sinay border post.
"Nobody wants to report their activities to the two main Kenyan military bases in Hulugho and Amuma."
The Andalus radio programme reported the spread of the virus to European countries and the US and also fake information that European leaders have apologised to Muslim communities over their role in financing the development of the coronavirus, which was allegedly meant to cleanse the earth of Muslims.
The recorded radio programme broadcast fake information that any health intervention by the Kenyan health authority in Kenya-Somalia border areas is meant to profile local communities and their locations and tag or feed that information into a satellite.
This would supposedly make it easy for Kenyan security services and their Western counterparts in undertaking drone operations and conducting aerial surveillance on some individuals living in the border town and suspected to be working with al Shabaab.
The al Aminiyat group in the Kenya-Somalia border area used WhatsApp to spread fake pictures and videos to communities living in areas close to the Somali side of the border with a mobile telephone network.
Kenyan border residents usually prefer to use mobile telephone services from Somalia as they offer cheap calling rates, have a strong network and give affordable data bundles.
Most residents rely on mobile telephone services provided by Somalia-based Hormuud Telecom Company, and that gives terrorists the upper hand in spreading fake information through a Somalia-based telecom to a Kenyan audience at the border.
One of the WhatsApp videos circulated to the border community shows a fake video of 2,000 people who died inside an American church due to Covid-19. The intention of the misinformation was to show the locals the virus meant to wipe Muslims is instead cleansing Americans en masse.
"Covid-19 was a perfect opportunity for al Shabaab as they took advantage of the community fear of the virus to spread fake news and brainwash locals through fake videos and pictures produced by their misinformation lab," said Asha Abdi, head of the Violent Extremism programme at Garissa-based Hornafric Consultancy.
Other channels used to spread fake misinformation include Facebook, which the group used to target Somali youths in Kenya, Somalia and the diaspora.
Edited by T Jalio