Kenyan jihadism now targeting cream of society

Homegrown Kenyan jihadism has a new face. The new generation of jihadists are “cool”. They are college-educated, intelligent, multi-lingual and from well-to-do families. They are the crème de la crème of society.

The new barons of blood are Internet-savvy and familiar with the latest encryption technologies. They meticulously plot their operations using the Dark Web.

Because of their mainstream appearance and background, they can easily blend in and carry out deadly acts of terrorism undetected.

The old stereotype of the average local jihadist as a disenfranchised, semi-illiterate, kanzu-clad, bearded young man recruited from an impoverished corner of the country is irreparably broken.

The new recruitment venues are not rundown mosques in Eastleigh and Majengo, but glitzy coffee houses in upmarket Nairobi and the hallowed cloisters of universities.

This is not good news. It signals the pernicious spread of radicalisation. Radicalism and violent extremism are now cool, class-blind and cut across the gender divide.

Young girls from middle class Muslim families are being groomed on social media and becoming radicalised. A number of them, beguiled by jihadi romance, are finding their way to Somalia and Syria to “bear children for the martyrs”. Some are being deployed as suicide bombers or act as couriers.

Abdirahim Mohammed Abdullahi, who plotted the Garissa University College massacre, is typical of the new changing face of jihad.

Counter-terrorism experts are baffled and are struggling to understand what makes a privileged young man like Abdirahim — anecdotally well-adjusted, perfectly sane and rational — commit such horrendous crimes.

Detectives have been poring over phone data and interviewing dozens of Abdirahim’s relatives and friends in a bid to answer that question. Understanding his path to radicalism is not just important for the criminal inquiry, but is crucial in helping experts to build an accurate profile of the new generation jihadist.

Tucked in a corner on a busy street in Eastleigh is a shop where Abdirahim used to run a successful cooking gas business.

Sources interviewed by Somali radio stations say Abdirahim was “highly-disciplined and astute”.

PENETRATED LEGITIMATE BUSINESS

There are suspicions this could have been an Al-Shabaab “front business” in which Abdirahim was getting a steady income to support his education and recruit new members.

Another intriguing line of inquiry is on the extent terrorist cells have penetrated legitimate business enterprises with “dual-use” capabilities such as LPG and the fertiliser import trade.

In the hands of experts, gas cylinders can cause mass atrocities, while fertilisers can build deadly explosives. There have been a few attempts by local militants to experiment with and deploy IEDs strapped to gas cylinders at Eastleigh.

Somali sources say Abdirahim was initially self-radicalised and spent hours on the Internet reading materials on jihad before he was recruited by Al-Shabaab talent-spotters.

It is speculated that he may have been recruited by another Kenyan jihadist, Abdulkadir Mohammed aka Ikrima, believed to be in Jamame or Jilib, southern Somalia, where Kenyan forces have been conducting a series of air strikes. Ikrima was the target of a US special forces operation in Barawe after the Westgate attack in late 2013.

Abdirahim was said to have been drawn to the teachings of charismatic Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in 2012.

His special series of sermons called Al-Jihadu Dinunaa (Jihad is Our Faith) was particularly popular with Kenyan jihadists and was translated into Kiswahili by the Pumwani Mosque in Majengo, run by Al-Hijra militants until 2013.

The number of deadly terrorist leaders emerging from institutions of higher learning in Kenya is on the rise. The leader of the Al-Hijra militant movement, Iman Ali, was recruited while a student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.

Iman Ali is in southern Somalia and recently posted a video on YouTube to “comfort Muslims facing persecution” in Kenya and gloating over the strings of deadly terrorist attacks in the northeast and coastal regions.

One of the first suicide bombers in Somalia was a college dropout from Minnesota, United States, called Ahmed Shirwa. He was 26, was regarded as highly-intelligent and dreamt of becoming a doctor. He was possibly recruited by Al-Shabaab while in college.

Abdi is a commentator on religious matters and terrorism.