Kenya extends amnesty to reformed terrorists

By Fauxile Kibet

Kenya has said that it reformed terrorists will be accorded second chances if they surrender and express the will to reform and denounce criminal activities.

Speaking Thursday during the State of the Nation’s address, Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta said that Kenya remains “a country that believes in second chances to those who are genuinely seeking to return to a path of legal conduct and embrace our constitutional values.”

Mr Kenyatta said that the Kenyan government was willing to undertake initiatives that will “disengage, rehabilitate and reintegrate returnees who had been members of listed terrorist groups”.

He added that Kenya will continue with the war against terror and will strive to eliminate all terror related groups and networks as well as those who facilitate them.

“The Key aspect is strengthening legal tools to ensure militants do not take advantage of Kenya’s democratic and open society,” Mr Kenyatta said.

Over the past months, Kenya has faced a wave of attacks from the Somalia based Al-Shabaab terror group which has targeted both civilian and security forces, The Attacks escalated after the country started operation “Linda Nchi’ in Somalia in 2011.

The latest attack occurred in January at the DusitD2 office complex at a Nairobi suburb in January where twenty people were killed.

The president’s comments comes at a time when security forces in the country have been accused of extra judicial killings of terror suspects which is believed to have discouraged would be reformers from surrendering to government.