Kenyan Cadets Lost in Somalia, Claims Eugene

Hundreds of Kenyan Somali youth trained by the government to fight al Shabaab have disappeared, a politician has said. New Ford Kenya party leader Eugene Wamalwa said the youth may be plotting attacks against Kenya.

He spoke on Saturday during the burial of Mama Mary Ezna Khavulani at Milima in Tongaren subcounty, Bungoma county. Wamalwa said in the wake of the April 2 Garissa University College attack we need to know “the whereabouts of hundreds of Kenyan Somali youth from Isiolo, Mandera, Wajir, Garissa and Eastleigh trained at Manyani”.

“How many were recruited, trained and sent to Somalia to infiltrate al Shabaab?” said the former Saboti MP. Where they are today and have they gone to bed with the enemy? he said. “If four could slaughter hundreds as seen in Garissa, what damage could 400 such people, with deadly military skills, inflict?” said Wamalwa.

Some 147 people were killed, 11 of them from Bungoma county, and 79 others injured during the Garissa University College attack. The youth were trained during President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga Grand Coalition government, said the former Justice minister. Wamalwa urged the National Assembly to follow up on the programme.

Sources say Kenya may have trained more than 4,000 youth of Kenya Somali origin from the Coast, North Eastern and Isiolo at Archers Post and Manyani to infiltrate the al Shabaab between 2009 and 2010.

Speaking at the funeral, Tongaren MP Eseli Simiyu asked why politicians such as National Assembly majority leader Aden Duale did not reveal the identities of the terrorists’ financiers before the attack. He said hawkers from Northern Kenya in Bungoma and Trans Nzoia should leave. “They are mapping out our churches. We do not want them here,” Simiyu said.

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