Anti-terrorist agents are investigating clandestine radicalisation programme inside Kenyan prisons by individuals jailed or detained in connection with terrorist activities. Specifically targeted are the two largest correctional facilities, Kamiti and Shimo-La-Tewa Prisons in Nairobi and Mombasa, respectively.
At least 80 inmates are jailed or remanded at the Kamiti Prions in connection with terror-related offences, while about twice the number are held at Shimo-La-Tewa. British terror suspect Jermaine Grant, who is remanded at the coastal facility, is believed to be among the key masterminds of the radicalisation project.
Confidential sources who spoke to the People Weekend say in the last one month, prison authorities have raided cells of suspected radicals where cell phones, USB drives, and literature were found linking them to active terrorist groups outside prisons.
Contacted on telephone, Commissioner of Prisons Isaiah Osugo said through an aide that they were aware of the challenge of radicalisation of inmates and were taking necessary steps to confront the issue. “Prisons are a fertile ground for religious extremists to recruit,” said the aide.
“However, one of the main challenges we face is that we cannot stop a prisoner from joining another religion. There will always be a Christian prisoner walking out of prison as a Muslim convert, and vice versa. But as a corrective institution we have to guard against extremism that portends a security threat.”
Consequently, the Kenya Prisons Service is in the process of recruiting 60 more Imams to combat radicalisation inside the country’s prison facilities. Sympathisers Terrorism sympathisers have it easy recruiting inside Kenya prisons where inmates spend up to nine hours a day mingling freely on their own away from watchful eyes and ears of prison warders.
In such an environment, convicted and remanded Al Shabaab operatives have a field day recruiting fellow inmates to their “cause”. The situation is made worse by prevailing corruption in Kenyan prisons which allows inmates to have unhindered communication, including access to money from outside prison walls, something Al Shabaab must be taking full advantage of to establish terrorist cells inside prisons.
Two weeks ago, Attorney General Githu Muigai proposed that Kenya develops a Guantanamo Bay kind of facility where suspects and convicted inmates on terrorist-related crimes are held in isolation.
The latter is a US government facility based at the coast of Cuba and where inmates on terrorist-related crimes are held in isolation. At Shimo-La-Tewa GK Prison, the suspected main “operation base” of the prison terrorist cells, terror suspects and convicts are held in Block E.
They include those linked to actual terrorist attacks as well as those involved in radicalisation and violent take-over of mosques by extremist youths at the coast.
A good chunk of them face charges related to piracy. Warders who spoke to the People Weekend in confidence for fear of reprisals from their seniors say the terror network at Shimo-la-Tewa is quite strong and serving as a conduit for reaching other prison facilities in the country. Reached for comment, Coast Regional Prisons Commander James Kodieny said they are investigating the matter.
“I won’t deny that radicalisation is taking place in our prisons. However, we’re ready to take head-on anybody involved in it.” He added that though Shimo- la-Tewa is the only maximum prison in the coast region and holding most dangerous convicts, measures have been put in place to deal with any security threat.
News of radicalisation of inmates at Shimo-La-Tewa comes in the wake of heightened security at the facility following an attempted raid by unknown gunmen two weeks ago. In the June 29 incident, hooded gunmen fired at officers manning the prison gate as they tried to force their way inside.
Police in Mombasa are still investigating the possibility that the gunmen could have been terrorists who wanted to free their colleagues held at the prison. Prison warders who spoke in confidence say their colleagues have also been accomplices in the radicalisation project after they were compromised with money.
“We are aware that senior prison officers and some warders have been “bought” to facilitate radicalisation of inmates”, confided a warder at Shimo-la-Tewa, adding he once reported an incidence to his senior only to be reprimanded and told to mind his own business.
An ex-inmate interviewed by People Weekend also confirmed that indoctrination and conversion to extremists of inmates at Shimo-la-Tewa Prison is so real. The ex-convict who was jailed for one year after pleading guilty to charges of theft, confesses he was in the group of youths who underwent radical teachings in the hands of the terror suspects.
He had been jailed after he was unable to raise the Sh.5000 fine imposed on him. He says most of the radicalised youths are out of prison after serving their jail terms and have re-joined society, yet nothing has been done to track them down.
He further identifies British terror suspect Jermaine Grant as the main driver of the radicalisation project inside Kenyan prisons. He says the latter urges youths at facility to follow into his footsteps saying he was indoctrinated while a teenager and held in prison with another British terrorist, Richard Reid famously known as the Shoe Bomber.
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