Kenya: Step Up Cyber War Against Al Shabaab
The Cyber war against the al Shabaab needs to be stepped up urgently if there should be any legitimate expectation of defeating them and preventing further loss of lives of people in Kenya, Somalia and the whole region.
While the military assault on the criminal group is on going and has to some degree degraded their capabilities, al Shabaab is still very active in cyber space, recruiting more members and spreading their propaganda to influence the minds of our unsuspecting youths.
It is unbelievable that such a terrorist organisation, which has killed hundreds of Kenyans and Somalis and vows to kill more in future, can be allowed to operate websites to enhance its activities.
Currently, al Shabaab is openly operating a number of websites to spread their toxic ideology of encouraging and justifying attacks inside Kenya, Somalia and the whole region.
There are three most notorious al Shabaab websites currently in active operation and are virtually unchallenged.
All of them are in Somali language, with the exception of one, which also runs a Kiswahili segment targeting and luring Kenyan youth with their glorified messages.
Another mostly posts audio and written material from al Shabaab official radio station Al Andalus, which is still on air in parts of Southern Somalia where the group is still in control.
It is in these dubious websites that the terrorist group often posts their written and audio messages after carrying out attacks, justifying and glorifying the killing of innocent people and encouraging further attacks.
The websites are used to actively recruit the next generation of terrorists by misleading young minds to join their 'noble struggle'.
The group regularly calls for the killing of Islamic religious and political leaders, including those in Kenya, who speak out against them.
So what can be done about these toxic websites and others similar to them that are furthering the evil agenda of terrorism in Kenya and the region?
Law enforcement agencies, especially those involved in cyber counter-terrorism, can have the websites taken down by contacting the companies hosting them. Typically, web-hosting companies host thousands of websites and may not be able to keep track of the activities of all those websites, allowing terrorist groups to take advantage of such loopholes.
In addition, al Shabaab websites are written in Somali and foreign web hosting companies may not be aware of their contents until they are alerted by law enforcement agencies.
But once they realise and confirm that they are hosting dangerous websites, web hosting companies take them down to avoid falling foul of the law, which prohibits hosting websites that promote terrorism and other criminal activities.
Since terrorist groups whose websites are taken down often quickly jump to other unsuspecting web hosting companies to keep their websites online, there is need for dedicated online counter-terrorism teams to prevent them from doing so.
It is time that Kenya, Somalia and countries in the region developed and enhanced their online 'armies' to deny al Shabaab a voice.
This 'army' should ensure that terrorist groups like al Shabaab do not take advantage of their Internet to promote, justify and glorify terrorism and recruit the next generation of killers.
Twitter has consistently and actively prevented al Shabaab and other terrorist groups from misusing their platform to spread terrorism.
In addition, last year, the US law enforcement agencies shut down a notorious pro-Shabaab website.
Al Shabaab may be the only terrorist organisation that is enjoying virtually unchallenged leeway to actively operate websites to promote their evil agenda.
Attempts by other terrorist groups like ISIS, al Qaeda and Boko Haram to take advantage of the Internet for their evil agenda continue to be actively thwarted. Al Shabaab should not be the exception.
