Bogus NGOs lure Nairobi youth to join Somali al-Shabaab militia

NGOs based in Nairobi are being used by Somalia’s al-Shabaab militia group to recruit young Kenyans.

The al-Shabaab militia, which is linked to the al-Qaeda terrorism network, has been fighting the Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu and imposed Sharia law in areas under its control.

Agents for the NGOs with offices in Westlands and the city centre have been luring unsuspecting Kenyans with promises of jobs, offering salaries as high as Sh190,000 ($2,500).

The agents, usually flush with US dollars, have been operating for more than a year in North Eastern Province and recently moved to Nairobi.

Police struck

Intelligence officers and undercover police raided a hotel in the city’s Eastleigh area yesterday and arrested 10 young men being prepared for missions in Somalia.

The NGO bosses and their agents escaped the 4 pm raid and a manhunt has been launched.

Maalim Hassan, 24, is one of 20 recent recruits who was waiting to be taken to Mogadishu when the police struck.

He was approached by a man he barely knew who he had met in Mombasa last year.

“He kept calling me saying he would help me get a job in Somalia. Initially, I ignored him but after a while, I agreed as the pay offer was good,” Hassan told the Nation.

A year later, he met the man in Eastleigh and he was introduced to an agent supposedly contracted by one of the NGOs.

Two NGOs have been identified as recruiting youths for al-Shabaab.

As a cover, they are registered as humanitarian organisations which supply relief food and medicines to citizens trapped in Somalia.

“I met the chief agent a few metres from his office building and he told me he was contracted by an NGO to recruit drivers and store managers for its humanitarian operations in Mogadishu,” Hassan said.

But a source familiar with the NGOs’ operations told the Nation that recruits only got to know they had been recruited for war after they cross the border and start training.

Others are used as suicide bombers, according to the source, who has worked in Somalia for a long time but who could not be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Hassan has no education beyond Form Four but was told he had qualified for the well-paying job because he is a Muslim, is young and has Caucasian hair.

The agent asked him to help recruit others and gave him US$150 (Sh11,400) for his personal upkeep, including payment for food and hotel bills for a week.

Hassan was also warned of the secrecy of the mission and urged to divulge the information only to young men willing to take up the jobs.

The agent also told him that his target was to recruit 1,500 young men and that 600 had already left for Somalia.

“I was introduced to 10 other young men at Eastleigh but the number had since increased to 25,” Hassan told Nation.

Ten of these were arrested in Friday’s raid but the rest escaped. More than 10 plainclothes officers, together with intelligence officials backed by two dozen uniformed officers, all armed with rifles took part in the raid.

Hassan said the group was under instructions not to spend more than one night at the same hotel.

“For the last five weeks, we have stayed in almost all the hotels and lodges in Eastleigh. We book in for the night and check out the following morning. At times the agents visit us but mostly they contact us by phone,” said Hassan.

The recruitment raised suspicion because of the secretive and odd manner in which it is done.

Recruits are not required to have any form of professional training and their educational background does not matter.

Young Muslims aged between 15 and 25 years are tergeted and those from other parts of Kenya who got wind of the job offers and tried to enlist were turned away, Hassan said.

Among the recruits awaiting transportation to Somalia were six youngsters of Arab origin, one Indian while the rest were Somalis, the Nation found out.

Hassan said they are all Kenyans.

“Every Friday, we meet the agents at a petrol station and they give us our weekly allowance. One time I got US$400 (Sh30,400),” he said.

“We do nothing the whole day. We just sit in hotels chewing miraa and at night we drink alcohol and take prostitutes to our rooms. We just wait for the agent or his associates to call and give instructions,” he added.

When the call comes, they tell the agents where the group is booked and are instructed to move to another hotel in the morning.

“There is no way we can reach them because they conceal their mobile phone numbers,” said Hassan.

* Names have been changed to protect the identities of those who spoke to theSaturday Nation.