Terrorism: Radical Kenyan teacher jailed for 20 years

A Kenyan court has jailed a radical Muslim school teacher to 20 years imprisonment after he tried to enlist pupils into the Islamist militant group Al Shabaab.

Salim Mohamed Wabwire, a convert from Christianity, was a primary school teacher and a preacher at a local mosque in the north coastal city of Mombasa.

The court in Mombasa ruled that Wabwire had taken advantage of poverty in the coastal country of Kilifi to lure pupils into joining the militant group.

The Somali Al Qaeda affiliated group has carried out numerous attacks in Kenya in recent years, including the massacre at Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya in April 2015 that left 148 students dead.

The university reopened on Monday, nine months after the attack.

Wabwire was arrested in June last year and charged with three counts, including being a member of Al Shabaab.

The court convicted him of radicalizing his pupils during Islamic lessons at the school where he taught in Kilifi, contrary to the law on the prevention of terrorism.