Majority of Muslim youth being recruited in the outlawed Al Shabaab militia group are new converts from Christianity.
A community worker Amina (not her real names) from Majengo slums who sought anonymity says Al Shabaab recruiters are taking advantage of their lack of proper knowledge of the Islam religion and sending them to Somalia.
“As community workers, we talk to those who have been recruited and have escaped the nets and they tell us that their problem is misguidance by the recruiters who tell them that Islam is all about war only to find out it is not actually that,” says Amina.
“You are someone who was just converted into Islam, you do not know anything about Islam then someone comes in and tells you that Islam is all about war, if you want to go to paradise you have to go and fight,” She says.
“Most of them do not even know the kind of war they are going to fight, they just know they have to fight and that is how they get recruited into jihadist groups like Al Shabaab,” she adds.
The community work says poverty and desperation are also some of the issues the recruiters are using to lure young youth into Majengo.
She further says that assurance for proper send off upon death by the Muslim clergy has also attracted many youth to the religion hence their joining the Al Shabaab militia.