Kenyan terrorism returnees from the terror Alshabaab Somali group have been put on the spotlight to surrender to security authorities in the country to receive forgiveness and start up their lives afresh as an effort towards promoting the country's security.
Lamu County Commissioner Joseph Kanyiri said they have so far realized that there has been an influx of Kenyan returnees from Somali who have taken refuge in Boni forest with a target to challenge Kenyan forces on 'Operation Linda Boni.
"The country's security shall not be compromised and those with such ill intention must stop immediately because they will never succeed," Kanyiri said.
This came up during a stakeholders forum in Lamu town on Friday evening which engaged the Republic of Kenya, Embassy of the United States of America and the government of Japan, local Community Based Organisation and Human Rights Groups within the area.
"It has emerged that Kenyan youths who ran to join the terror Alshabaab group in Somali have so far fled from the group and secretly hid in Boni forest fearing to surrender to the authorities for they might be arrested," Kanyiri said.
He confirmed they are not for the intention of arresting any returnee from the terror group who might willingly surrender to the security authorities but instead the government shall offer them with social and humanitarian training and canceling for them to join their families back.
"The returnees realized too late that the targets demanded by the Somali Alshabaab terror group were too tough for them to meet and instead secretly fled back to their country but most of them are fearing arrests," the commissioner said.
The stakeholders' forum dubbed 'IOM Kenya Programme for Human Security and Stabilization (PHSS), Countering and Preventing Violent Extremism C/PVE' brought together national and International efforts to combat terrorism and violent extremism in Kenya.