• 2 comments
• Print
• Email
• Tweet
• Reset

Since al-Shabaab related violence has spiked in Kenya, Mariam Abdi Hussein said she requires her two teenage sons to account for their movements and activities.

Hussein, a 43-year-old grocer in Wajir, said she is very keen to know the type of friends her children, 19 and 15, associate with and what sort of activities they engage in during their free time. "When they say that they are going to visit relatives and friends in Garissa District or Nairobi, they must truly convince me that they have no other purpose," she told Sabahi.

Since August, 120 women in Wajir have come together to take matters into their own hands and stop children from being recruited by extremist elements in the region.

The group, informally called "Women Against Extremism", is led by Wajir Women Empowerment Initiative chairperson Oray Adan Hussein, and uses religion to promote peace and tolerance. The group is comprised of women who studied the Qur'an and are committed to using their knowledge to counter the extremists' skewed interpretations of Islam, she told Sabahi.

The group also applies a motherly touch as an antidote to extremism.

Women Against Extremism brings its message to women and youths through town-hall meetings and local community radio. Hussein said the women use the Qur'an to show attendees that suicide attacks and targeting places of worship are never encouraged in the holy book.

"We do not want our youths to be used as al-Shabaab fighters here or in Somalia," she said.

Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK) Wajir Branch Secretary Sheikh Abduwahab Mursal said women play an important part in local religious leaders' united mission to mitigate extremist propaganda. "Often, the only time [religious leaders] have the audience is when the faithful come for the five daily prayers, but the time between the prayers is also very crucial," he told Sabahi. "The women fill that role to fight extremism."

"I have sat in several of the town hall meetings. They speak from a motherly point of view in which they want the best for their children," he said.

In a conservative community where religious activities are traditionally the purview of men, women could never have gained acceptance without a nod from the religious leaders.

Indiscriminate attacks spur community to action

Women from the organisation said the community became motivated after the July 1st attack on two churches in Garissa that was attributed to al-Shabaab in which 17 people were killed and over 60 were wounded.

"We did not think these people really existed here until they started blowing things up. Although the attacks happened in Garissa, we felt a sense of guilt that we had abandoned our roles," said Fatuma Mohammed Mire, a member of Wajir Women for Peace, a group that works with various communities to stop tribal violence.

On December 12, 2011, a landmine exploded as government vehicles left Republic Day celebrations in Wajir, injuring the Wajir District intelligence chief, his driver and four women of the local peace committee, including Mire.

The incident proved that militants are indiscriminate in their attacks, she told Sabahi. "The extremists want to disrupt the peace and harmony that various communities have enjoyed for years. As mothers, we had to assume more control over our youths," she said.

The Wajir community has welcomed women's engagement in religious activities in order to end the violence.

Ali Mohammed Mursal, a 23-year-old information technology student in Wajir, said he is optimistic that the women's contribution will help end extremism.

He partly attributed the decrease in attacks in Wajir to the women's initiative. The last attack occurred on July 18th when four people were injured in a twin grenade attack on a barbershop and a hotel in Wajir town.

"It could be a false sense of lull before the militants strike again, but the ongoing women's involvement may help change mind of those who harbour criminal intentions," he said.