One man’s quest to end extremism
By People Daily, April 23, 2021Abdi Kithiye was a deeply troubled young man last year. Communities in his rural village of Tarbaj were living in constant fear of attacks by violent extremist groups roaming the vast areas of Wajir County, bordering Somalia, in Northeastern.
Kithiye could not figure out what to do or where to begin in his quest to confront challenges in his community, however, he felt compelled to take some action.
I met Kithiye last year in Wajir when he was addressing a group of young people after a football match organised by USAid.
The initiative was seeking to curb radicalisation and violent extremism.
“Teachers were running away, forcing schools to close down nearly every day.
We would also hear reports that extremist groups had attacked a village or threatened communities living near the border with Somalia,” he narrates.
At the same time, a US-funded Equal Access International (EAI), was rolling out a new project aimed at increasing resilience of Somali-speaking communities to impact on violent extremist groups.
This is with special emphasis on strengthening local capacity to counter Al Shabaab’s recruitment efforts and shifting attitudes related to ideologically motivated violence.
The project, which is being implemented in Wajir, Garissa, and Nairobi counties, which have often been targeted in constant attacks from violent extremists, had a specific component to empower people like Kithiye.
“I saw a Facebook advertisement asking young people to apply for a training programme to empower them to use online and offline platforms to offer alternative messaging to the youth, who were continuously facing the allure from the extremist groups. I grabbed the opportunity,” says Kithiye.
He was referring to EAI Technical Camps, which were to be held in the three project hot spot locations and, as it turned out, Kithiye was among 28 applicants picked to undergo the intensive one-week training programme in Wajir.
Constant attacks
EAI’s Technical Camps are designed to strengthen the capacity, reach, and visibility of influencers to create powerful, credible, culturally relevant and scalable alternative narratives and pathways that strengthen good social behaviour, community resilience, inter-group dialogue and civic empowerment in targeted communities.
The Technical Training Camps, also held in Nairobi and Garissa, created a pool of dedicated trained leaders to reach out to their fellow youth and chart a future free from violence.
During the week-long training, Kithiye and his colleagues underwent lessons on empowerment, narratives used by violent extremist organisations and counter/alternative narratives, how to create impactful online campaigns and ultimately become peace influencers.
He enthusiastically took on the training opportunity and eventually graduated as a Peace Promotion Fellow.
Kithiye was tasked with formulating his own unique campaign technique to help his community resist and overcome the growing challenges of violent extremism.
While many chose to take up campaigns on issues such as Gender-Based Violence and girl’s education, Kithiya has made it his passion to counter narratives propagated by violent extremist groups.
Alternative accounts
“I got more empowered and felt there was something I could do to help my community through my voice, and I started providing alternative accounts to people through my social media pages.
In a way, I was telling people what life would be without the constant fear from violent groups,” he says.
As Kithiye and other Peace Promotion Fellows move forward with their projects and campaigns, they anticipate their hard work to have a positive impact.
“It means children will go to school without fear of violent repercussions and businesses will boom as people won’t fear travelling from place to place, and there will be greater co-existence between communities,” he adds.
On his part, EAI East Africa Director, Abdirashid Hussein, said they have initiated parallel media campaigns through local FM radio stations in a bid to reach more people with key messages on violent extremism and the need to counter the destructive path of violent organisations.
“The future belongs to the young people and we want to empower them so that they can ably chart their path without fear,” Hussein observed.
He said in addition to the work of the Peace Promotion Fellows and other influencers, they have mainstreamed the fight against radicalisation. -KNA