by Chris Mgidu
NAIROBI, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Monday formed a team to spearhead campaigns for preventing and countering violent extremism that has caused deaths in the East African nation.
Government spokesman Eric Kiraithe said the team would include all principal secretaries and office of the Inspector General of Police.
Kiraithe said Kenya had initiated a cross-cutting multi-agency national campaign to prevent and counter violent extremism.
He said the formation of the team is in recognition of the need to bring to bear preventive, mitigation, and rehabilitative measures to complement ongoing counter terrorism efforts.
"This is in order to protect our democracy, cohesion and development from the dangerous threats of ideologically-driven extremist radicalization, recruitment and attack," he added.
The campaign will take place under the National Strategy to Counter Violent Extremism, which was launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta in September 2016.
Kiraithe said the plan is to rally all sectors of Kenya's social, religious, and economic life to reject violent extremist ideologies with the aims of shrinking the pool of individuals that terrorist groups seek to radicalize and recruit.
