How America’s attempts to tackle terrorism in Kenya through art flopped

Details are emerging of how the United States of America has spent billions of shillings in a controversial counter-terrorism program in Kenya.

According to American website, BuzzFeed, the billions spent on musicians and Muslim community organizations to spread anti-radicalisation messages, using social media, music, and religious sermons have endangered the lives of the very people it was intended to help.

“Since 2011, the US government has been funding a secret campaign to dissuade young Muslims in Kenya from joining terrorist groups, such as al-Shabaab and ISIS, which are increasingly threatening the country… Internal documents obtained by BuzzFeed News from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) reveal for the first time it has paid out more than $3 million in grants to more than 60 different organizations — and a USAID official said they plan to spend an additional $20 million.”

The story reveals how between 2011 and 2014, USAID distributed Ksh.370 million ($3.7 million) to organisations in Nairobi and the Coast region.

“According to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News from USAID, following a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Wanting to reach more people outside those two areas, the agency increased funding to $20 million in 2016,” reads the article.

Critics say that the program endangers the lives of the very people they want to use to spread their message because of the US association forcing them to stop using the USAID logo.

USAID identified a popular musical collective known as Waayaha Cusub (“new era” in Somali) from Eastleigh known for their peace songs calling for an end to the civil war in Somalia.

“Between 2012 and 2013, USAID gave Waayaha Cusub nearly Ksh.10 million ($100,000) with the hope that the group could help steer young people away from extremism by holding concerts that carried anti-extremism messages. But, in 2014, after traveling to Amsterdam to perform a peace concert, the group never returned to Eastleigh,” writes BuzzFeed. “Its members sought asylum in the Netherlands; publicly they said it was because they feared being deported to Somalia, but friends of the group said it was because they were scared they would become targets of al-Shabaab if they were to return to Kenya.”

The program gave a Ksh.6 million grant to the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, run by Sheikh Mohammed Idris, a prominent imam in Mombasa.

The grant, according to USAID was intended to fund radio talk shows and forums to “train local leaders on countering the manipulation of religious edicts by groups promoting violent and extremist agendas within the region.”

“The project ran for just under four months, ending in November 2013, and in June of the following year Idris was shot dead by gunmen suspected of links with al-Shabaab.”

US officials in charge of the program admit that much of the time they’re not even sure if they’re reaching the right people.