The government is taking awareness campaigns against violent extremism to the grassroots in order to make the country safer. The National Counter Terrorism Centre's (NCTC) Njenga Miiri said the government with the support of stakeholders was creating modalities to counter factors that enable radicalization of members of the public, especially the youth.
Speaking in Marsabit town during the launch of the reconstituted Marsabit County Engagement Forum (CEF), Miiri said that factors that enable radicalization of youth into violent extremism were being countered. NCTC has partnered with the Strategies for Northern Kenya on a 12-month project, dubbed Accelerated Response Initiative against Violent Extremism (ARIVE), aimed at facilitating the coordination of CEF and the review of the Marsabit Action Plan (CAP) for the prevention and countering of violent extremism (PCVE).
The project that would be implemented in Marsabit Central, Sololo, and Moyale sub-counties is being funded by the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF) through the Act Change Transform (ACT).
The ARIVE project manager Shukri Adan said that the initiative aims at strengthening the coordination and minimizing duplication among various stakeholders hence maximizing the impact of PCVE efforts within communities. The project aims to enlist the support of stakeholders to be drawn from government departments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), religious leaders, political leaders, community and the media in order to create a safer and harmonious county.
Source: Sebastian Miriti - Kenya News Agency