A final review of the second National Counter Terrorism Strategy was finalised Monday setting the stage for its adoption and implementation.
The document that will guide the approaches taken to address violent extremism in the next five years will now be tabled before the National Security Council and the President for adoption and eventual launch later this year.
The final review and validation exercise was done by stakeholders from across the country.
They evaluated the document to ensure that it captures Kenyans' inspirations as voiced during the months-long review process that was carried out across the 47 counties.
National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC)’s Director Kibiego Kigen told the participants young people from across the country have demonstrated and demanded a place at the decision-making table.
“They have demonstrated a unique ability to be able to positively influence the political and economic development of our country," Kigen said.
"Today, you have the rare privilege and opportunity to inform and frame how Kenya deals with the complex and dynamic threat of violent extremism,” he said.
The day-long validation exercise marked the final stage of the rigorous process that is part of daily continuous efforts aimed at keeping Kenyans safe.
“So far so good, ours is to focus on soft approaches, the security agencies are also doing their bit. The government has also done its bit. In the online domain, we are also pushing it (radicalisation) back, and as we transition to the new strategy we have seen successes that we want to build on so that more successes can be sustained,” he said.
The inaugural strategy launched in 2016, has been faulted for leaving some areas blurred and failing to align with the dynamic nature of violent extremism.
NCTC seeks to fill these gaps with the new strategy, address emerging issues, and complement law enforcement measures with strategies that win the hearts and minds of Kenyans.
Nairobi Regional Commissioner Katee Mwanzia said the draft is a review of what has been there since 2016.
“There are lessons that have been learned since then, and there are also emerging challenges, and different methods being used by those who advance extremist views like on technology platforms, previously recruitment was one-on-one but now it can be done online and therefore the government has reviewed those challenges posed by extremists,” Mwanzia said.
The 2024-2029 strategy also expands the definition of violent extremism and the ideologies that are used to promote it, in a basic manner that allows the general public to understand its key drivers and channels of promotion that were not clear in the previous strategy.
“For instance, we have come out clearly to say that people are misinterpreting religion, we dissect that and point at the right and wrong approaches to religion. Some of these nitty-gritty will come out clearly in the new strategy,” he said.
The new strategy aims at bringing together segments of society that were not fully involved in the development of the initial strategy.
Some of the emerging threats that the country is facing regarding violent extremism include the spread of misinformation via digital platforms and the advertisement of fake jobs that end up being violent extremist recruitment channels.
The government has mapped out hotspots where the crime could be happening in Nairobi and across the country while actively trailing the activities of those involved.
“It is not that these are people who live at a particular place, people who have religious ideologies may be found anywhere, people who have political ideologies that are extremist also live in different areas, so what we are doing is sensitize the entire community so that should they come across any of them in their areas, they take appropriate action in terms of prevention,” Mwanzia said.
