Permissive Space and Policing Practices in Mathare and Kaptembwo, Kenya

ABSTRACT

In this article, I analyse how different policing actors project their power and sovereignty in two informal settlements in Kenya: Mathare and Kaptembwo. Using the idea of permissive space, I unpack how power, relationships, and sovereignty issues are negotiated through everyday policing practices and repetitive public performances. I interrogate how the police, community policing bodies, boda boda (motorcycle taxi) riders, men and women, and young people interacted in different spaces of impunity as they exercised sovereignty. I show how they draw on historical claims to power negotiated over time that entitled them with authority over particular issues, such as carrying out street violence on suspected criminals. As a result, I establish how legitimacy and sovereignty are negotiated, contested, constructed, and reconstructed. We can only understand these dynamics if one looks at how actors negotiate their relationships with the state and each other.

KEYWORDS:

• police
• violence
• youth
• crime
• impunity
• sovereignty

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Dr Emma Elfversson, Prof. Kristine Höglund and the anonymous reviewers who provided insightful feedback to earlier drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest was declared by the author.

Notes

1 This is one of the many cases I got from the fieldwork in Mathare. Similar incidents have been highlighted by the media and human rights groups such as the Mathare Social Justice Centre. See https://missingvoices.or.ke/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Patrick Mutahi

Dr Patrick Mutahi is a research fellow at the Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies in Kenya.