Lived realities and local meaning-making in defining violent extremism in Kenya: implications for preventing and countering violent extremism in policy and practice

ABSTRACT

Violent extremism is an ambiguous and politically loaded concept, and – at the national level – the parameters used to define it are usually framed by the state, powerful ruling elites, and members of the international community, either directly or indirectly through donor-funded projects. Although different types of violent extremism and extremist movements exist in Kenya, donors and the state often focus on religiously-inspired groups such as Al-Shabaab, the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, and affiliated networks such as the Al-Muhajiroun, Al-Hijra, and Jaysh Al-Ayman. However, at a community level, participants in our body map workshops highlighted gang violence, police brutality, ethnically motivated violence, marginalisation, discrimination, and gender-based violence as priorities in defining violent extremism. We conclude that constructions of violent extremism at the local level are shaped by lived experiences of everyday insecurities influenced by gender, ethnicity, social status, location, and interactions with the state. To effectively address violent extremism in Kenya and beyond, its definition needs to be contextualised in ways that take into consideration local perspectives and everyday experiences of violence and insecurity.

KEYWORDS:

• Violent extremism
• everyday security
• identity
• participatory methods
• Kenya

Acknowledgement

This research was made possible through a generous British Academy, Tackling the UK’s International Challenges Programme 2018 grant (Award Reference: IC3\100293). The first author would also like to thank the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds for the Post-doctoral Visiting Research Fellowship from January 2021 to January 2022 to complete the writing of this article. The authors would also like to thank our partner, the artist and curator, Xavier Verhoest, for his contribution to the research and particularly the body mapping workshops. We would like to thank the research participants in our study for their commitment to this project. We also would like to acknowledge and thank the Technical University of Mombasa and particularly to the Vice Chancellor Prof. Layla Abubakar, as well as the University of Leeds for their support with this research. Finally, we would like to thank the editors, and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback during the revisions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Kisauni is a coastal town in Mombasa, Kenya. Selected locations in Kisauni were identified as hotspots for criminal activities, violence, and Al-Shabaab recruitment. See the Mombasa County Action Plan (2018).

2. Al-Shabaab is a transnational extremist network originating from Somalia. The organisation has been responsible for many terrorist attacks in Kenya, where youth are radicalised and recruited to carry out their activities.

3. This study uses pseudonyms to protect participant anonymity. All interviews and field notes referenced here resulted from our study.

4. This does not mean all mosques were labelled as spaces for recruitment or radicalisation. Recruiters used specific mosques for their sermons and dawa (religious invitation) programmes (field notes, 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen

Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen is presently the Chairperson, Department of Social Sciences, Technical University of Mombasa. She has a PhD in Development Studies. She has increasingly used ethnographic methods in research work in the fields of countering violent extremism, terrorism, human trafficking and migration. Prior to her work in East Africa, she has worked as a researcher and practitioner in Sri Lanka in the field of conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Email: [email protected]

Sahla Aroussi

Sahla Aroussi is an Associate Professor in Gender and Global Security Challenges at the University of Leeds, in the School of politics and International Studies, United Kingdom. She is a feminist researcher with expertise in gender and international security and extensive experience of conducting research in African countries and the Middle East and North African region. Email: [email protected]

Michaelina Jakala

Michaelina Jakala is an Assistant Professor, Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University. She is an ethnographer with a background in Peace Studies. Her research interests broadly focus on the everyday experiences of peacebuilding and transitional justice with particular interest in justice, reparation, and education amongst marginalised groups. She has experience with participatory research and arts-based methods. Email: [email protected]