Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho has asked the State to intensify research and digitize intelligence gathering as a way to fight terrorism and extremism in the country.
Joho said on Wednesday that Western countries have succeeded fighting terror because of the sophisticated nature of the means they employ to fight fundamentalism.
He was speaking in Mombasa during the official opening of the Counter Violent Extremism (CVE) conference 2018.
The conference under the theme "Beyond Bold, Inclusive Conversations" brought together various key stakeholders including academicians, historians, religious leaders, sociologists, policy and research organizations and National Counter Terrorism Center among others.
The participants boldly and openly discussed Counter Violent Extremism issues affecting the coastal region.
"It is paramount to contextualise and frame the conversations around the issue by mainstreaming the role of women in the agenda as well as invest more in digitized research to unearth the root cause of violent extremism," Joho said.
The event was organized by Human Rights Agenda (HURIA) and other Coast based organisations fighting terrorism including HAKI Africa.
Mombasa County and in extension Coast region have suffered for long consequences of terrorism.
KDF is currently deployed in Boni Forest in Lamu to help contain the recruitment of youth to Islamist groups said to be training in the forest before being ferried to Somalia.