HDNet World Report Investigates a Growing Terrorist Threat in Kenya

DALLAS, Jan. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- This Tuesday, World Report, HDNet's award-winning weekly news program, travels to Kenya, a country long considered East Africa's most stable nation -- not to mention a vital American ally in the war on terror -- to investigate a Somali extremist Islamic terrorist organization called Al-Shabaab.  The group, having known ties to Al-Qaeda, is now crossing Kenya's porous border with Somalia, along with the recent influx of refugees, and imposing their strict interpretation of Islamic law on citizens in Kenya.

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When asked by World Report Correspondent Paul Beban about Al-Shabaab's presence in Kenya, U.S. Ambassador Michael Rannenberger said, "They are of course an extremely fanatical movement, and they do have significant support.  There is no doubt that Al-Shabaab poses an actual and potential danger to Kenya."

Somalia has been in the throes of civil war and has not had an effective central government since the 1990s, and Al-Shabaab is trying to fill that void by using radicalized Islam and strong-arm terrorist tactics.  They have taken credit for murdering civilians, journalists and government officials from Kenya, Somalia and surrounding countries.  Their recruits infiltrate Kenyan camps and border towns, sowing unrest - and infecting even the capital of Kenya, Nairobi, making threats against the government.

Rannenberger, however, does not feel that Al-Shabaab is finding much support in the Kenyan Muslim community.  

In fact, Mohamed Sirat, Vice Chairman of the Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims, assures Beban that the Ambassador is right.

"…if you ask me what is our rating…what is our stand about Al-Shabaab, very clearly I will tell you we are very much despise them," Sirat told Beban.  "Al-Shabaab are just power hungry people that's the way we see them."

How will Kenya continue to protect its citizens from this growing threat?

HDNet World Report - " American Ally Under Threat" premieres on HDNet, Tuesday, January 26 at 9:00 p.m. ET.

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