"The Kenyan authorities I spoke to said Makaburi and other radical clerics operate to the very limit of what the law allows and gathering the evidence to convict them is extremely difficult. The United Kingdom faces the same problem."
9/28/13, "On the trail of al-Shabab’s Kenyan recruitment 'pipeline'," BBC, Peter Taylor
"The armed siege at the
Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi has focused attention on the al-Qaeda
affiliate, al-Shabab. When the attack happened, the BBC's Panorama
programme had been investigating the recruitment pipeline of young
Muslims through Kenya to join the Islamist group in Somalia.
It is not a place you would expect to meet a radical cleric who describes himself as Kenya's number one target in the country's fight to disrupt al-Shabab's recruitment network.
Makaburi, whose real name is Abubaker Shariff Ahmed, was placed on a UN Security Council list which banned him from travel outside Kenya and froze his assets in 2012.
The indictment describes him as "a leading facilitator and recruiter of young Kenyan Muslims for violent militant activity in Somalia," who has preached that "young men should travel to Somalia, commit extremist acts, fight for Al-Qaeda, and kill US citizens."
Makaburi makes no apology for his activities and believes they are justified according to his own controversial interpretation of verses in the Koran.
"There's no such thing as a moderate Muslim. The prophets did not teach us moderation in Islam - Islam is Islam," he said....
I met him quite openly at his home and travelled with him to a village where he prayed publicly in a mosque. Makaburi said accusations that he directly funds al-Shabab are false - but defended its right to use violence.
"Al-Shabab are using violence to stop their country from being invaded by people from outside," he said.
"It's not the right of America or any other country to interfere in what they believe in or how they want to run the country."
He took me to an Islamic boarding school just outside Mombasa where young Muslims, roughly between the ages of six and 10, some of whom are orphans, learn to memorise the Koran by heart, and are fed a particular interpretation of it by teachers who share the same views as Makaburi.
He proudly pointed out that his young son is one of its students....
I interviewed two young Kenyan al-Shabab recruits who had travelled through a network such as this one to join al-Shabab in Somalia. They did not wish to be called by their real names. They had been promised money for their families back home and a place in paradise as a reward for their commitment.
When they arrived in Somalia, their dreams of jihad and glory were shattered.
Ali said he was 13 or 14 when he travelled to Somalia. He described being forced to watch the beheading of a recruit who had tried to escape from the al-Shabab camp in Kismayo.
"His hands and legs were tied behind his back. They made him kneel down and then they took a very sharp knife, right in front of me, and slaughtered him.
"He was screaming, like an animal, the way a goat can be slaughtered."
It was a shocking warning to others who might contemplate running away. Ali was traumatised by what he saw and still has nightmares about the horror he witnessed....
The key question is how these radical clerics are able to operate openly without being prosecuted.
In September 2012, Makaburi was charged with several counts of incitement for his part in the riots following Sheikh Rogo's assassination. He is currently on bail pending a trial.
The Kenyan authorities I spoke to said Makaburi and other radical clerics operate to the very limit of what the law allows and gathering the evidence to convict them is extremely difficult. The United Kingdom faces the same problem.
Their fear is that failure to stop radical clerics such as Makaburi will preserve the pipeline of young Muslims being recruited to al-Shabab."
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