Four pupils of Gandini Primary in Kaloleni, Kilifi County, Kenya, have said their Islamic teacher, Samwel Wanjala Wambwile, recruited them for the terrorist group Al-Shabaab.
Islamic teacher nabbed after recruiting pupils aged 4 to 16 for terrorism
Islamic schools suspected of breeding terrorists are being shut down as the Kenyan government tackles terrorism in the country
A Kenyan child reads verses from the Quran on the fifth day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in a Madrassa in Nairobi, Kenya on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009.
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According to Kenya's Daily Nation, Wambwile was arraigned for recruiting seven children in the school to become Al-Shabaab members on June 19, 2015.
The children are all between the ages of four and 16.
Giving testimony before Principal Magistrate Diana Mochache, the victims who were old enough to testify said Wambwile alias Salim Muhamud Wambwile radicalized them inside the Jilad mosque.
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One of them, a female standard five student, said the teacher taught them martial arts and advised them to fight non-Muslims in school.
Another victim said Wambwile wrote the words "Radical Boys" on their shirts and told them all non-Muslims should be persecuted to death.
"He told us not to mingle with non-Muslims in school and at home," another one of his victims said.
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A teacher at the school, Aisha Omar, said his teachings had already begun to affect the pupils.
"He taught his pupils to hate non-Muslims and some had become rude and disrespectful towards teachers," Omar said.
The police officer who arrested the suspect, Sergeant Kinoni Chenga, said he confiscated shirts with the inscriptions "Radical Boys" from him.
Wambwile is also accused of disrupting teaching in the school
Al-Shabaab has carried out several terrorist attacks in Kenya.
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In April 2015, they killed about150 students, mostly Christians, in an attack on the Garissa University College, Garrissa, Kenya.
The September 2013 attack on Westgate mall left 67 people dead and several others injured.
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