Form village vetting teams, ministry told

The government should form village vetting committees to help identify foreigners staying in the country illegally, a Muslim lobby group has said.

Such committees should work closely with village elders and administrators to boost efforts from police and intelligence.

Kenya National Muslims Advisory Council (Kemnac) also called for the arrest of immigration officers manning the country’s entry points in the last five years accusing them of issuing identity cards to foreigners after receiving bribes.

Kemnac chairman Sheikh Juma Ngao said they support the ongoing crackdown but cautioned police that it should be conducted respectfully.

He said local committees will help identify aliens staying in various estates.

“Such committees should work together with the police and administrators. This will make the government’s work easier,” he said.

The organisation cautioned Muslim leaders who had “dragged the name of Islam” into the issue saying security matters are of national and international concern.

“We want to caution our Muslim colleagues that dragging the name of Islam in this issue is itself anti-Islam.

Even when we go for pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, which is a strictly Muslim state, we must carry passports, visas and other legal documents,” he said.

Not in Allah’s name

Sheikh Ngao said the leaders should cease from defending suspects in the name of religion saying Islam was not a religion that advocates for violence.

“If someone decides to go into a church to shoot people; that is not Islam. If someone blows up a PSV vehicle; that is not Islam; if they enter a supermarket to take people hostage and shoot them dead; it is not Islam that has sent him there.

‘‘These are criminals and leaders must stop defending them,” he said.

He called on the government to transfer immigration officers from border points saying they might have been compromised through bribes. They are endangering the country, he added.