The new new counter-terrorism strategies embraced by the Kenya and bilateral partners have paid off as confirmed by a drop in number of assaults by Somalia based Al-Shabaab combatants, a global relations researcher said on Sunday.
Professor Peter Kagwanja, the CEO of Nairobi based organization, Africa Policy Institute, said in an analysis published by a local daily that anti-terrorism initiatives, psychological warfare activities that are intelligence driven and delicate to national cohesion have succeeded extensively in the recent past two years.
"A move from military prompted to a more all encompassing counter-psychological oppression approach that concentrate on winning the hearts and brains of the populace has been a win given the sensational droop in the quantity of assaults on Kenyan soil by outside foes," Kagwanja commented.
The East African country has encountered a spate of terror assaults since its troops entered Somalia in 2011 to flush out Al-Qaida connected psychological militant system, Al-Shabaab.
The activists were in charge of an attack in Nairobi's upscale Westgate shopping center in September 2013 where they executed 68 regular folks.
The year 2014 marked heightening of Al-Shabaab assaults in the drift and northeastern locale where many regular citizens lost their lives.
In April 2015, Somalia-based terrorists again struck Garissa University grounds where they murdered 147 undergraduates.
This horrendous assault drew broad judgment and constrained the Kenyan security work force to reexamine and rethink their counter-terrorism strategy.
Kagwanja noticed that 2015 marked another age in the battle against terrorisrs in Kenya and over the eastern African district.
"After Westgate and the assaults that took after, Kenya's political and security first class were in assention the nation's youngster majority rule government must be shielded from dread," said Kagwanja.
He noticed that the awful slaughters from Al-Shabaab psychological militants constrained the security mechanical assembly to devise a multi-pronged and better organized way to deal with battle the danger.
"Kenya's security agencies have thwarted various assaults and spared numerous lives.Al-Shabaab assaults dropped from 72 in 2014 to 28 before the finish of 2015," Kagwanja said.
He included that by August 2016, fear based oppressor assaults inside the Kenyan soil were under ten while group drove deradicalization program has kept numerous young from joining terror groups.
As per a current report from Kenya's security offices, many youth have been blocked on their approach to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab since 2015.
The report disclosed that in the last one year, 100 Kenyan youth have defected from Al-Shabaab and are gradually being integrated in the community.
He noticed that increased vigilance has prompted to capture of more than 50 Al-Shabaab combatants while one hundred are on terror watch list.
The scholar emphasized that additional resources should be channeled towards community policing, intelligence gathering and sharing alongside youth empowerment to weaken terrorist infrastructure.
Reference: Global Times
