Radicals recruiting young Somalis in Kenya - parents

By Abdiaziz Hassan

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somalis who fled war in their homeland say they fear Islamists are snatching or luring away their children from the safety of their new life in Kenya to fight Holy War in the failed Horn of Africa state.

Representatives of the hardline al Shabaab insurgents, seen by Washington as an al Qaeda proxy, are battling the moderate government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed for control in the latest twist of an 18 year civil war.

Worried Somali parents in Kenya say al Shabaab representatives are targeting children on the streets of Nairobi or at Islamic centres popular with Somalis who have taken refuge in the Kenyan capital or provincial towns.

"Seven students are already missing," said Sheikh Ishaq Miruka, head teacher of Fathu Rahman Primary School sited near a noisy air force base in Nairobi's Eastleigh neighbourhood.

The religious primary school espouses Sufism, a moderate form of Islam associated with contemplation, not combat.

Although none of the missing students are from Fathu Rahman, Miruka says he was once offered a job at one of the schools from which some children have disappeared.

"We found out that they were hired by a militant group in Somalia. Children, all boys, aged between 14-17 years were transported from Eastleigh to Somalia."

He said the institutions are financed from abroad and that most Somalis did not have any qualms about enrolling their children in the schools.