Is West doing enough to stop youths from turning into mass murderers?

Thomas Evans: The 25-year-old British citizen was one of the 11 terrorists shot dead by KDF when they raided a military camp. He grew up in Buckinghamshire, UK, but later changed his name to Abdul Hakim. 

In Summary

• The tragedy is that Ms Evans remembers her son as the “normal” young man who left school at 16 and was “depressed” at being dumped by his girlfriend. She seems not to have come into contact with what her son had become: a monster. A blood-thirsty, hate-filled monster.
• There are troubling questions that Ms Evans raises and which the British authorities can address. Evans was stopped from leaving the UK in February 2011 because the authorities knew that he was radicalised and was trying to reach Somalia.
• It is being reported that as many as 50 Britons have joined Al-Shabaab. Ms Evans speaks at length about the people she believed poisoned her son’s mind whom she says are cowards who sent her son to die in Somalia but remained in the safety of the UK.

By MUTUMA MATHIU
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I feel sorry for Ms Sally Evans, 57, the English mother of Al-Shabaab terrorist Thomas Evans who was killed by the Kenya Defence Forces last week.

He was in a diabolical squad of killers that was trying to overrun a military camp.

Ms Evans remembers the disturbed son who left home in 2011, lying that he was going to Egypt to learn Arabic. But if she was honest, she would be among the first to admit that her son was more than “getting into trouble”. His bizarre conduct, refusing to share utensils in the house for fear of being contaminated with non-halal food, would have been a pointer to a young man tending to extremist tendencies.

Earlier she had talked of her love for her son and how she wished something could be done to make all the extremism go away so that he would return home to her.

The tragedy is that Ms Evans remembers her son as the “normal” young man who left school at 16 and was “depressed” at being dumped by his girlfriend. She seems not to have come into contact with what her son had become: a monster. A blood-thirsty, hate-filled monster.

I am sure she must have read descriptions of his conduct on June 15 in Mpeketoni, Lamu county. Evans, like a bushy-bearded fiend, was moving from house-to-house, beating down doors with an axe, looking for Christians. When he found them, their hands would be tied behind their backs and they would be ordered to kneel down.

Evans would then slice their throats with such hatred and fury that their heads would be severed. On learning of her son’s death, she said: “ I am relieved he is no longer in a position where he can hurt people. I thank God he wasn’t a suicide bomber, he didn’t take lots of people with him. I am thankful for that.”

I don’t know about that. Some 94 people — in Witu, Hindi, Kibaoni, and Mpeketoni — were slaughtered that murderous season by Evans’ gang, and that is a lot. I do not know whether Evans could have done a lot worse if he had strapped explosives to his body.

Besides, we have no idea what other “operations” he had taken part in here and in Somalia and how many he slaughtered. He was a killer on a large scale.

There is a malevolent cunning in the way Al-Shabaab carries out these attacks. On this particular one, I heard that they mined the area around the military base knowing that when they struck, soldiers would come out and step on the mines or run over them in their jeeps.

There are troubling questions that Ms Evans raises and which the British authorities can address. Evans was stopped from leaving the UK in February 2011 because the authorities knew that he was radicalised and was trying to reach Somalia.

Why then did they allow him to leave, allegedly for Egypt, four months later? Why did they not speak to his mother and share their fears with her? She said had they enlisted her help, she would have worked with them to ensure he never left the UK.

It is being reported that as many as 50 Britons have joined Al-Shabaab. Ms Evans speaks at length about the people she believed poisoned her son’s mind whom she says are cowards who sent her son to die in Somalia but remained in the safety of the UK.

To what extent does the British government see itself as responsible for its citizens who are slaughtering Kenyans? And does the British government think it is doing enough to stop the radicalisation and export of jihadists? And now that its citizens are cutting our throats, does it think it should help us a little bit more to fight them?

As I was writing this, a colleague walked in to inform me that Britain had lifted the travel advisory against most of the Coast. The irony, I am sure, will be lost on many.

*****

Members of Parliament are devastatingly effective at propaganda. They remind me of the Ministry of Information which convinced Kenyans that we were resisting digital migration because we wanted to remain analogue and make all the money, never mind that nothing could have been further from the truth.

Last week, the argument was on why they had unfairly blocked Dr Monica Juma from office. After a week of the most outrageous allegations, now what is on the table is not their shameful conduct, but the demand that she be sacked. You see, they shot themselves in the foot. Since they rejected her transfer, she may as well stay where they are.

Twitter: @mutuma­_mathiu