State organs must dig deeper into Kilimanjaro's children recruitment.

Editorial Cartoon.

Several times police in Kilimanjaro Region have arrested children confined in houses where they are believed to be undergoing special training.

 

Very unfortunately police have never come out clear to tell the public the kind of training individuals recruiting these children have been offering nor who are the godfathers sponsoring it.

 

These incidents emerge at a time when East African region is fighting against Al-Shabaab, an extremist group that has killed hundreds of innocent civilians with our neighbours in Kenya being the most affected. 

 

While police and intelligence personnel are stepping up surveillance and security measures, information trickling into the newsrooms from Kilimanjaro casts doubt with regard to the state of security in the northern region. 

 

Incidents of children being confined in houses for special training in Moshi with security personnel being kept in the dark is food for thought to all of us. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to establish whether the teachings offered to them have anything to do with ordinary Islamic studies since most of them are found dressed in Islamic attire.

 

The training offered to these children are indeed doubtful simply because information shows that the environment under which it was conducted was surrounded with high level of secrecy  in the sense that no other people are allowed to access it, a factor that always attracted police to storm the venues to rescue the children.

 

Looking analytically at these incidents one may ask the following questions: Who is responsible for recruiting these children? From which areas, regions or districts these children are being recruited? Who finances the recruitment and up-keep of the children? 

 

What kind of teachings is being offered to the children? And, why offer the training in secret environments? If security personnel get to the bottom of these questions it may help give a clue of what these recruitments are all about.

 

We start giving Kilimanjaro Region a benefit  of doubt with regard to the state of security simply because it is the same region from which Rashid Charles Mberesero, a Tanzanian, who took part in the deadly attacks that left 148 people dead at Garissa University in Kenya, hails from.

 

It should be clearly understood that by mentioning Rashid’s name it does not mean that this status is now assumed by all residents hailing from Kilimanjaro region, rather the point we are making here is that these teachings offered in secret environments need to be carefully examined as they might have played a key role in psychologically changing Rashid - who knows!

 

Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner Leonidas Gama has already been quoted by newspapers that came out on Thursday as admitting that the state of security in the region’s boarders was worrisome, citing Al-Shabaab threats.

 

According to newspapers, RC Gama ordered all district commissioners to strengthen all security committees from ward to village levels as part of strategies to deal with security threats from ‘bad individuals’.

 

While Al-Shabaab continues to pose threats in the EAC region, Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Tanga are the three regions in Tanzania through which Al Shabaab can find entry points. 

 

Though there are organs charged with the role of protecting people and property as well as the country’s territory in general, defence and security remains everyone’s duty.