TikTok Linked To Suspects Detained For Running ISIS & Al Shabaab Recruitment Ring

A Mombasa court has granted police 21 days to investigate two men suspected of recruiting youths to join Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)-based terror groups.

An investigating officer on Thursday, April 11 told Senior Resident Magistrate David Odhiambo that the two males are suspected ISIS and Al Shabaab recruiters.

According to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), the duo are suspected of having committed the offence of Recruiting Members of a Terrorist Group contrary to Section 13 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act No. 30 of 2012.

Detectives believe that the 27-year-old and 21-year-old may be part of a terror cell brewing in the Likoni sub-county, Mombasa County recruiting youths to join ISIS and Al Shabaab terrorists in the DRC and Somalia.

Al Shabaab fighters during a past training. /THE EAST AFRICAN

Magistrate Odhiambo heard that the suspects used the late Sheikh Aboud Rogo’s radical teachings to racialize others to join the terror network.

"The Investigation officer further submitted that the two have two mutual friends who have gone to join Al-Shabaab after listening to the radical teachings.

"The officer linked the two to a man called Nassor nicknamed ‘Rogo’ suspected to have gone to join Al Shabaab, who got radicalized “after accessing videos of Aboud Rogo's preaching from the social media site TikTok”," stated ODPP in part.

The two respondents allegedly informed detectives that others are still using Aboud Rogos's teachings to radicalize and are yet to be arrested.

The Investigating Officer told the court he needed 30 days to conclude investigations including taking three phones seized from the first suspect for forensic analysis. In his ruling, Magistrate Odhiambo granted the investigator 21 days to complete his investigation directing the matter to be heard on May 7, 2024.

This raises fresh concerns regarding the credibility of TikTok, an app that has sporadically risen in popularity over four years owing to its bite-sized video content.

On Thursday, March 21, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki who appeared before the Public Petitions Committee of the National Assembly revealed that the government wrote to the owners of the app to explain the concerns that have been raised about how the app is being misused by criminals to spread malicious propaganda, steal popular accounts through theft and impersonation, conduct fraud by duping Kenyans into fake forex traders, fake job recruitments and distribute sexual content and intimate images through its live feature.

"TikTok, and other data controllers and processors must comply with regulations under the Data Protection Act. The Government, through the office of the Data Protection Commissioner, has contacted TikTok and sought to ascertain the level of compliance to ensure the privacy of individuals is respected, provide details on the effectiveness of age verification and content filtering, and demonstrate compliance with requirements of the Data Protection Act, 2019," he added.

Kindiki noted that ByteDance Limited, a Chinese multi-billion company that owns TikTok would be required to respond to the letter, failure to which his ministry would take administrative action.

He, however, noted that it would be premature to ban TikTok in Kenya as of now without considering the views of the owners and those set to be affected.

The committee was considering a petition by Bob Ndolo, that wants TikTok to be banned in Kenya for allegedly promoting the decay of morals in the country and defrauding Kenyans.

Social media apps on a phone. /UNSPLASH