Kenya has denied reports for the UN that many of its citizens are fighting with Somalia’s al-Shabab militants.“This is propaganda,” Francis Kimemia, a senior official at the internal security ministry told the BBC.
A report to the UN Security Council said leaders of the al-Qaeda-inspired group regularly travelled to Nairobi to raise funds and recruit fighters.
Al-Shabab controls much of southern Somalia, where it is battling the weak UN-backed government.
Mr Kimemia told the BBC’s Network Africa programme that any al-Shabab leaders who passed through Nairobi would be arrested.
He also said the Kenyan authorities were closely monitoring mosques in Nairobi in case clerics sympathetic to al-Shabab were using them to radicalise young Kenyans and Somali refugees.
Kenya is home to many thousands of Somali refugees, and also has a large ethnic Somali population.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.