An Al-Shabaab shadow governor from Middle Shebelle region insists that the militants have enough numbers to recruit from amid ongoing defections.
For the past few months, numbers of Al-Shabaab militants surrending to security forces has risen, with some now being integrated to Somalia National Army.
Security forces among them KDF team have stamped authority in several regions, often liberating towns that have been under the Al-Shabaab militants.
Mr Yusuf Isse Kabakutukade suggests Al-Shabaab has enough pool from which to recruit fighters because militants marry four wives. He even admitted having a son fighting in Kenya.
“My son who was born while I was with Shabaab is now fighting in Kenya,” he said, barely hours after the militants attacked security officers at Elwak town.
Last week, United Nations rejected Kenya's request to have Al-Shabaab listed as a terrorists group, a move that had also been objected by both Somalia and the US.
Kenya currently has over 4,000 KDF troops in Somalia, most of them stationed in the friendly Jubbaland region. Somalia recently accused Kenya of forcefully installing Sheikh Ahmed Madobe as president.
Abukar Dahir Osman, Somalia’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, argued that Al Shabaab can be tamed through existing UN Security Council resolutions, as long as there was a regional co-operation on it.
“[We] urge [the] Kenyan government to implement existing Security Council resolution 751 targeting AS (al-Shabaab), including the ban of illegal charcoal trade in Somalia, which is the lifeline of AS to finance its operations in the region,” Mr Osman tweeted on Wednesday.
Kenya has suffered high profile Al-Shabaab attacks, with Dusit D2 hotel attack being the latest this year. In 2015, over 147 students were killed in Garissa University.