Kayama Kazungu, 25, from Kijiwetanga in Malindi, crossed into Somalia in 2015 and married a man she later realised was an al Shabaab fighter. At the appeal of the government, she came back to the country, taking up the amnesty extended to Shabaab returnees. The returnees face rejection from the community, terror group sympathisers hunt them down while suspected state agents disappear them. Khalid said Shabaab sympathisers are also tracking the returnees, threatening them and killing them. A clear legal framework will also address the concern of returnees being targeted for assassination by security agents as well as by al Shabaab sympathisers who consider them as traitors.

Source: The Star August 03, 2021 18:56 UTC