International human rights lobby group, Human Rights Watch, has called upon the Kenyan government to stop what it has termed as 'recruitment of Somalis in refugee camps to fight for an armed force in Somalia. In a press statement released to the press, the organisation's Nairobi office head Letta Tayler pointed an accusing finger at the Kenyan authorities, which he accused to have directly supported the drive, which has recruited hundreds of Somali men and boys in the sprawling Dadaab refugee camps as well as Kenyan citizens from nearby towns.

The statement added that since early October, Somali recruiters claiming to act on behalf of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) have operated openly in the Dadaab camps in northeast Kenya, near the Somali border, to enlist young refugees in a new force intended to fight in Somalia. This, he added, is in contravention of the principle recognized in international law that refugee camps should be entirely civilian and humanitarian in character. Millitary recruitments are in refugee camps banned by the principal.

“Permitting recruitment of fighters in refugee camps undermines the very purpose of the camps – to be a place of refuge from the conflict,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, in the statement. “Kenyan authorities need to immediately put a stop to this recruitment drive targeting Somali refugees.”

HRW also claimed to have carried out investigations which have found that recruiters for the new force have used deceptive practices, promising exorbitant pay and claiming that the force has United Nations and other international backing. They have urged teenage refugees to lie about their ages and to join without informing their families. Former recruits say that their cell phones were taken from them before they were transported to the training center.

Last Monday, the Al-Shabaab militia that controls most of the Southern regions of Somalia, had accused the kenyan authorities of recruiting youths to fight alongside Somalia's Transistional government forces. The group that has been accused of having links to the Al-Qaeda, had threatened to attack Kenya if it continues with the recruitments. But the Kenyan military had released a statement on Tuesday, saying that the recruitment is part of the on-going military recruitments if Kenyan youths from the region interested in joining the Kenya Army.

The Kenyan Minister of Internal Security, Prof. George Saitoti, had also dared Al-Shabaab to make good their htreats to attack Kenya, adding that the country's security systems are ready to face any external threat.