The UN Monitoring Group report on Somalia and Eritrea obtained by Reuters said non-Somali Kenyan nationals now constitute the largest and most organized non-Somali entity within Al-Shabab.
Al-Shabab has been waging an insurgency against the UN-backed government in Somalia since 2007. It controls large parts of southern and central Somalia, as well as chunks of the capital Mogadishu.
"In the past, Al-Shabab's presence in Kenya has been concentrated primarily within the ethnic Somali community. But since 2009, the group has rapidly expanded its influence and membership to non-Somali Kenyan nationals," the report said.
The UN investigators focused most of their attention on the activities of the Muslim Youth Center (MYC), commonly known as Pumwani Muslim Youth. It is also investigating two other indigenous Kenyan groups with reported links to Al-Shabab.
"Officially, the MYC constitution defines the group as a 'community based-organization' that aims to provide youth with religious counseling ... In practice, members of the group openly engage in recruiting for Al-Shabab in Kenya and facilitate travel to Somalia for individuals to train and fight in Somalia," the report said.
Kenya has a large Somali diaspora living in the Eastleigh suburb of the capital Nairobi, along with nearly 400,000 Somalis living in the world's biggest refugee camp in Dadaab in the north of the country.
Reuters reporters have seen Al-Shabab fighters in Eastleigh, sometimes returning for medical treatment, and Somali parents living there complain that some groups actively recruit youths to fight for Al-Shabab.
However, the UN report focuses more on non-Somalis in Kenya who are channeling funds to Al-Shabab, which is a proscribed terrorist organization according to Washington.
It said MYC was established in December 2008 and has its roots in the Majengo area of Nairobi, a poor area just east of central business district near Eastleigh. It said the chairman of MYC was Ahmad Iman Ali, who moved to Somalia in 2009, and that the organization has developed a strong network of members and sympathizers in Kenyan towns such as Eldoret, Garissa and the port city of Mombasa.
The report said Ahmed Iman now has a fighting force of 200 to 500 in Somalia, most of whom are Kenyans, including minors, from Majengo.
"Ahmed Iman's success in recruiting fighters and mobilizing funds for the cause, appear to have earned him steady ascendancy within Al-Shabab. The Monitoring Group believes that he now intends to conduct large-scale attacks in Kenya, and possibly elsewhere in East Africa," it said.
MYC publishes a weekly newsletter called Al-Misbah for its Kenyan audience, which includes material supporting Al-Shabab and Al-Qaeda. MYC has also organized secret training sessions for young fighters in Nairobi's Kawangware district in 2009, the UN report said.
It said a key pillar of Kenyan financial support for Al-Shabab is the Pumwani Riyadha Mosque Committee which owns a large section of land in Majengo, including the huge second-hand clothes Gikomba market. The report said rents paid in Gikomba go to MYC.
The UN report also said money donated for the reconstruction of a mosque in Kenya was now being channeled to Al-Shabab. It said Ahmad Iman issued a directive in March to his Kenyan associates saying: "Direct all the money to Al-Shabab because it is their right ... He (Ahmad Iman) instructed us to stop the construction (of the mosque) and re-direct the money to that side (Somalia)."
The UN report also includes the transcript of a phone conversation in May 2011 between a PRMC member and MYC combatants in Somalia, demonstrating the former's continued funding for Al-Shabab fighters.
