Somalia has experienced almost constant conflict since the collapse of its central government in 1991. The long-running instability has created misery for its people. And it’s spilled over into its east African neighbor, Kenya, home to many ethnic Somalis.
Heba Aly has the story of one Kenyan community – hundreds of miles from the border – that’s lost one of its young men to the insurgency.
 Isiolo, Kenya |
Heba Aly: In a village in central Kenya, children play soccer in a dusty yard. For a ball, they use plastic bags tied up with rope. Many of the Kenyans living in this poor village are ethnically Somali, though their families have lived here for generations. One young man who grew up here was Tawakal Ahmed.
Tawakal Ahmed's friends
Frank Metro: It happened gradually and I didn’t anticipate it to go out of hand. I just thought; he’s just infiltrated with that theory of being holy, making it to heaven, but after a while, he will come to terms of the reality and maybe mix the religion and reality on the ground.
Heba Aly: But that didn’t happen. Instead, Tawakal took off for Somalia, where he joined Islamist insurgents fighting a new Western-backed Somali government, installed in early 2007.
Frank Metro: Then after a while, that is when we heard that he has passed. And so it was like, this is sad.
Heba Aly: There’s no official confirmation, but many here believe that Tawakal blew himself up in a suicide attack. His friends can’t understand why, since he never had much of a connection to Somalia. But recent changes in his hometown might provide some clues.
 The home Tawakal Ahmed grew up in |
Heba Aly: The sermon playing out of this mosque in Isiolo is in Somali. In recent years, Somali immigrants and refugees have settled and taken control of some of the mosques. Some locals say the new Somali mosque leadership is connected to extremist insurgent groups back home – specifically the feared al-Shabab. Hussein Noor Roble is a village elder.
Hussein Noor Roble: If ever there is a recruitment going on in this area, it’s done by those people – the elders of that mosque, be they the committee, be they the imam or whatever.
Heba Aly: Noor’s wife Kamar also sees extremism taking hold in the village. As she cooks a meal of pancakes, she remembers a day last year when some elderly women were celebrating the birth of the prophet, Muhammed.
Kamar: Boys from the mosque. They come. 20, 25, like that. They were many.
Heba Aly: She said the young men didn’t believe in worshipping anyone other than Allah. So they went on a rampage.
Kamar: That time, they stoned people. They stoned people. They come up to inside. They beat people… We said they were al-Qaeda.
 Some residents say this mosque preaches a radical version of Islam |
Heba Aly: It’s not clear that those labeled extremists here have any links to Al-Qaeda. Still, some locals say it’s this kind extremism that led Tawakal to his death. They also believe he was lured by money and the prospect of accomplishing something in life.
Village elder Noor invites Tawakal’s cousin over to talk. The cousin is too scared to give his name. He tells me it’s marginalization that leads young men like Tawakal to go to Somalia.
COUSIN: This government is not giving Kenyan Somalis any job, any opportunity. We are just like 2nd class citizens. The boys – and everybody – is annoyed with the government, with the life they are living, so they are ready to do anything.
Heba Aly: That’s why Somali insurgents usually recruit from predominantly Somali areas of Kenya. But Tawakal’s story is among the first known cases of recruits from central Kenya, hundreds of miles from the border.
Heba Aly: And that’s troubling to many here in Isiolo. Milgo Ahmed is another of Tawakal’s cousins. She worries other young men will follow her cousin’s path.
Milgo Ahmed: Tawakal is dead. But many many other Tawkals are going to have the same fate if the international community does not take action. We are not part of al-Shabab, we don’t know their ideology
 Milgo Ahmed worries other young men will follow her cousin's path. |
Heba Aly: She adds we are not interested in their fighting. But we cannot save our children from them. For the World, I’m Heba Aly, Isiolo, central Kenya.
I am a long time listener of this program which comes to me through minnesota public radio. In the recent months, we have heard in the news that some Somali teens have travelled back from the U.S. and especially from my home state of Minnesota, to Somalia and now it is happening to kenyan teens. I was born in Somali and grew up in Kenya and now a U.S. citizen. It is sad to hear bad news coming out of Somalia almost every day. I hope we will wake up from this sleep that we were sleeping for the past 18 years and get rid of this crazy warlords and the likes who have ruined out country and finally give Somali back to the good Somalis. President Obama recently visited Ghana and the message he heard for African was that their future is in their own hands. Wake up brothers and sisters. Forget about clans and tribes because they are the things that put us into this big hole that we are in. Don’t wait for a miracle, because there is no one. dust yurselves off and work for countries.
I listen to this program on my way home and i love it.I moved from Kenya to the US a seven years ago and its true the violence has spilled into my native country in the recent years.Buses traveling to Garrisa are requred to have armed escort not counting Mandera town,one of Nairobi subarbs was turned to illegal weapons ally from Somali and refugees from Somali are spilling into the country every single day.All this has led to an increase in crime turnished our countrs’ image.We are all the same,forget about tribalism and everthing will fall back in place.Peace.