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Shocking revelations of UoN students on Al-Shabaab payroll


Students in institutions of higher learning are being recruited into violent extremism at an alarming rate, the director of the National Counter Terrorism Centre, Mr Isaac Ochieng has warned.

According to Mr Ochieng, the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) already has names of students who have been radicalized and are enjoying salaries from Al-Shabaab and other militia groups affiliated to Al-Qaeda.

“There is increased recruitment, training and indoctrination of the youth into terrorism cells. These terror groups are now targeting brilliant youths to recruit,” said Mr Ochieng during a panel presentation on countering violent extremism on Monday at the University of Nairobi.

“We have intelligence that there are students within this university who are on the payroll of Al-Shabaab. It is very sad,” added Mr Ochieng.

LAW STUDENT

The revelation comes months after a 24-year-old former University of Nairobi Law student led the group of Al-Shabaab militants that massacred 148 people at Garissa University College.

Mohammed Abdirahim Abdullahi, nicknamed Ababmo by his classmates at the Law Faculty in Nairobi’s Parklands Campus, was killed by the Recce squad that had responded to the attack.

He was the son of Abdullahi Daqare, the chief of Bulla Jamhuri location in Mandera County.

Mr Ochieng however failed to disclose why the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) has failed to arrest the suspected students if indeed there is such intelligence.

The director of the Counter Terrorism Centre only mentioned that the intelligence service will soon flash out the radicalized students from their hideouts.