President blasts Kenyans who help Al-Shabaab

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta also had some harsh words Saturday for Al-Shabaab, as well as any those who supported them.

In a nationally televised speech, Kenyatta said the nation's fight against terrorism "has been made all the more difficult by the fact that the planners and the financiers of this brutality are deeply embedded in our communities and were seen previously as ordinary, harmless people."

Kenyatta condemned "corruption of the worst and most criminal kind (when) Kenyans ... finance, hide and recruit on behalf of Al-Shabaab."

"There is no form of legal penalty, social shaming and godly condemnation that they do not deserve, to the fullest extent," the President said.

Describing Al-Shabaab as an "existential threat to our republic," Kenyatta urged his fellow Kenyans to "tell those that believe a caliphate is possible in Kenya that we are one indivisible, sovereign and democratic state."

"That fight will never change," he added. "Our forefathers bled and died for this nation. And we will do everything to defend our way of life."

Credit: CNN