Somalia’s central bank governor, today, said that the Kenyan government has suspended the licences of 13 Somali remittance firms nearly a week after al shabaab militants massacred 148 students at a university in Garrisa, a town in Kenya’s northeast.

Local media reports have also confirmed that nearly 100 bank accounts linked to financing terrorism have also been frozen.

Following the attack, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to respond “in the severest ways possible” and said his government would crack down on the planners and financiers of such attacks. Kenyan security forces have so far arrested five people on suspicion of involvement in the university massacre.

The government is now also going after the money trail. Somalia’s central bank governor Bashir Issa Ali told the Reuters news agency that the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has officially notified 13 Somali money transfer firms about the closure of accounts. Popular local tabloid, the Daily Nation newspaper, reported today that the government has “frozen the accounts of 86 individuals and entities suspected to be financing terrorism in the country”, including Somali remittance firms.While the move on the somali accounts is targeted at tracing and blocking Al shabaab’s source of finance. “It’s going to hurt Somalis in Kenya more than Somalis in Somalia,” Reuters quotes Bashir Issa Ali as saying. He added that the amount of money sent from abroad to Kenya is huge and that many Somalis in Kenya rely on relatives abroad for basic funds including school fees. Some owners of the remittance firms have also kicked back against the government’s new directive.

The owner of one Somali money transfer firm told Reuters that the CBK actually revoked the licenses of the remittance firms. “Last night we simply received a notice, without discussion and without informing us [beforehand],” said the owner. “This is not the way to fight terrorists.”