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Al-Shabaab and its affiliates in Kenya are using a combination of veiled threats and open violence to scare the population into scuttling the Kenyan government's efforts to crush the group in Somalia, officials and analysts say.

With the loyalty of its foot soldiers diminishing due to heavy losses at the hands of Somali troops and their allies, al-Shabaab hopes to gain Somalis' support by scaring Kenyans with retaliatory threats, retired Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF) Lieutenant Colonel David Kiprono Ruto told Sabahi.

"They are trying to create fear among the civilian population so that the public will call on the government to withdraw troops from war-torn Somalia," he said.

Bombing churches and other places crowded with civilians is part of this tactic, Ruto said. "The strategy is to ensure the civilian population is frightened to an extent that they no longer feel safe anywhere," he said. "After some point, [al-Shabaab hopes that] the people will start rationalising that there is no point of having troops in Somalia."

Kenya joined the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in October 2011 because al-Shabaab militants had been abducting foreign tourists along the Kenyan coast. Since then, Kenya has endured a series of grenade attacks, shootings and bomb blasts.

Martin Ewi, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, says al-Shabaab's social media strategy is not expected to accomplish a military goal, but aims to use fear to influence and pressure Kenyans.

"I think this is a classic terror approach that al-Shabaab is employing," Ewi told Sabahi. "Terrorists have long used the media to propagate their campaign and intimidate communities."

Imana Laibuta, chief executive officer of Laisec East Africa, a security company with offices in Kenya and South Sudan, said, "Idle and poor youths who have nothing to lose will find the militia's war of words too enticing to ignore."

To this end, al-Shabaab has begun publishing an online magazine in Swahili, mocking the KDF Operation Linda Nchi, which means "Protect the Country", by coining its own Operation Linda Uislamu, which means "Protect Islam".

Al-Shabaab has also affiliated with the Muslim Youth Centre, which says Kenya is run by non-believers and has called on the Muslim community to revolt against the state.

KDF operations press on

Apollos Machira, executive director of the Kenyan Centre for Conflict Resolution, says the best way to deal with terrorists is through force -- the only language they understand.

"So far, the unrelenting operations of the KDF in southern Somalia have drastically crippled al-Shabaab, which has resorted to issuing veiled threats through social networks as a sign of frustration and desperation," he said.

KDF spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir told Sabahi earlier this year that the Kenyan military is also using social media to counter the terror group's propaganda.

"Most of the KDF's posts involve its battle successes, which have shown al-Shabaab to be a weak force with no fighting skills," he said. "We have used the same platform as al-Shabaab to undermine its agenda. Establishing our presence and command in cyberspace was critical for us in fighting the enemy."

But Ewi says that instead of responding to al-Shabaab's propaganda, the government should focus on beefing up security around the country. "Efforts should also be made to re-assure citizens that measures have been put in place to deter any attacks so that they go through their daily lives without fear," he said