https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1026-6537
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ABSTRACT
In the last two decades, the US has provided African governments with increasing assistance to fight terrorism. Kenya has been a major recipient of US support. Drawing on research on remote warfare and the principal-agent theory, this article explores the effects of US security policies in the country. It shows how the remote form of intervention adopted by the US against terrorism in Africa has increased the vulnerability of US policies to the interests and perceptions of local actors. In Kenya, such dynamics have favoured the abuse of US assistance for the implementation of repressive measures against suspect groups.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The article focuses on the first two decades of the war on terror, up to the year 2020. Such a time limit, coinciding with the last year of the Trump presidency in the United States, is due to the shortage of data on the security policies implemented by the Biden administration in Kenya.
2 Other studies have highlighted similar trends in contemporary forms of conflict, making reference to concepts such as proxy warfare (Mumford Citation2013), surrogate warfare (Krieg and Rickli Citation2019) or vicarious warfare (Waldman Citation2021).
3 Between 2001 and 2019, the average number of US active-duty military personnel in Kenya was approximately 65, fluctuating between a maximum of 208 and a minimum of 23 (DMDC Citation2019).