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Kenya authorities have closed a madrassa - or religious school - for teaching radical Islamic ideologies to youths.
The school in Machakos, located about 65km (40 miles) from the country's capital was targeted after local youths were detained on suspicion of joining Somali militants, the BBC reports.
It is the first Kenyan madrassa to be closed because of allegedly extremist teachings. A police chief warned that others could follow.
Kenya's Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka said the decision had been taken to close the Daarul-Irashad centre, which opened in 1997, on the advice of the police's CID, anti-terror and intelligence units.
The recent arrest in the Machakos area of 21 young men suspected of being recruited for al-Shabab first raised suspicions, he said.
The police then profiled suspects arrested in other terror crackdowns and found that others had passed through that madrassa, the spokesman said.
The head of the madrassa, Farqan Chacha, confirmed that all pupils at the school, which offers three-month courses for new converts, had been sent home but that the school was challenging the closure in court.
#Kenya #Machakos #BBC
The school in Machakos, located about 65km (40 miles) from the country's capital was targeted after local youths were detained on suspicion of joining Somali militants, the BBC reports.
It is the first Kenyan madrassa to be closed because of allegedly extremist teachings. A police chief warned that others could follow.
Kenya's Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka said the decision had been taken to close the Daarul-Irashad centre, which opened in 1997, on the advice of the police's CID, anti-terror and intelligence units.
The recent arrest in the Machakos area of 21 young men suspected of being recruited for al-Shabab first raised suspicions, he said.
The police then profiled suspects arrested in other terror crackdowns and found that others had passed through that madrassa, the spokesman said.
The head of the madrassa, Farqan Chacha, confirmed that all pupils at the school, which offers three-month courses for new converts, had been sent home but that the school was challenging the closure in court.
#Kenya #Machakos #BBC