Confronting Violent Extremism in Kenya |Debates, Ideas and Challenges
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Confronting Violent Extremism in Kenya |Debates, Ideas and Challenges Confronting Violent Extremism in Kenya Debates, Ideas and Challenges Edited by Mutuma Ruteere and Patrick Mutahi Confronting Violent Extremism in Kenya Debates, Ideas and Challenges Edited by Mutuma Ruteere and Patrick Mutahi i Confronting Violent Extremism in Kenya |Debates, Ideas and Challenges ISBN 978-9966-1864-4-7 Contact Information Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies P.O. Box 23748-00100,GPO Nairobi,Kenya Tel:+254 20 527 0577 Email:[email protected] Web:www.chrips.or.ke Copyright © Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies 2018. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official positions of the Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies. ii Confronting Violent Extremism in Kenya |Debates, Ideas and Challenges Contents Acknowledgement iv Note on Contibutors v 1. Introduction -Mutuma Ruteere and Patrick Mutahi 1 2. Comparative Perspectives on Islamic Radicalism in Kenya and the Horn of Africa - Paul Goldsmith 9 3. Kenya: Fighting Terrorism Within and Without the Law -Ken Nyaundi 43 4. Countering Violent Extremism: A Gender Perspective - Nerida Nthamburi 71 5. Online Radicalisation and Recruitment: Al-Shabaab Luring Strategies with New Technology - Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen 93 6. Countering Violent Extremism: Lessons from Lamu, Kenya - Patrick Mutahi and Nathaniel Kabala 119 7. “Operation Sanitize Eastleigh”: Rethinking Interventions to Counter Violent Extremism - Kamau Wairuri 135 8. Rehabilitation or Indefinite Detention? A Critical Examination of an Emerging Approach to ‘CVE’- Samar Al-Bulushi and Mohammed Daghar 151 9. Returnees and Justice: Alternative Justice System as a Mechanism for Amnesty in Kwale County of Kenya - Steve Ouma Akoth 169 iii Confronting Violent Extremism in Kenya |Debates, Ideas and Challenges Acknowledgments Production of this book would not have been possible without the commitment of many people who we owe a debt of gratitude despite being unable to list them all. A special thank you to the CHRIPS team especially Mikewa Ogada who assisted in reviewing some of the chapters. In a special way, we recognise the late Eva Ayiera, who at her passing, was coordinating production of this book. Copy editing was done by Ng’ang’a Mbugua. Open Society for Eastern Africa (OSIEA) provided funding for production of this book. The views expressed in this publication are exclusively those of the concerned authors. iv Confronting Violent Extremism in Kenya |Debates, Ideas and Challenges Notes on Contributors Nerida Nthamburi is a human rights lawyer from Kenya with over twelve years’ experience in the social justice and legal sectors in the East and Horn of Africa region. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town and holds a Master of Laws degree (in Public International Law) from the same institution. Dr. Paul Goldsmith is an anthropologist with extensive research experience on issues of pastoralist conflict and resource management. He is currently working on a book for IGAD documenting the development of the CEWARN regional conflict early warning mechanism. Dr. Steve Akoth is a Kenyan scholar, advisor and activist in the field of human rights and social anthropology with over 19 years’ experience working in diverse international, regional and national fora. His work falls into the field of developing plural public discussions spaces and democratic institutions with a focus on subaltern societies. More specifically, he looks at a range of questions such as why young citizens are drifting towards violent extremism, how multiple justice systems can be used as mechanisms for access to justice and social movements, and the conditions under which the subaltern population gain power. Mohamed Daghar is a Security Analyst. Nathaniel Kabala is a researcher based in Kenya, with keen interests in participatory research and community facilitation. Dr. Ken Nyaundi holds a PhD degree in International law from the University of Cape Town, South Africa and a Masters degree in public international law from the same university. He obtained his Bachelors of law degree from the University of Nairobi. He has served in the public service and in the Civil Society for many years. He is currently engaged in private legal practice and consultancy work. He writes on public law and governance issues. Samar Al-Bulushi is a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. She completed her PhD in Cultural Anthropology at Yale University. Generous funding for her research has come from the Social v Confronting Violent Extremism in Kenya |Debates, Ideas and Challenges Science Research Council, the Henry Luce Foundation, and the MacMillan Center at Yale. Samar’s work has appeared in Transforming Anthropology, Africa is a Country, Jacobin, Intercepted, The Guardian, Al-Jazeera, and Pambazuka News. Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen is a Lecturer at the Department of Social Sciences, Technical University of Mombasa. Kamau Wairuri is a PhD candidate at University of Edinburgh. Dr. Mutuma Ruteere is Director, Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies, and former UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Patrick Mutahi is a Research Fellow at Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies. He is also a PhD candidate at University of Edinburgh. vi Confronting Violent Extremism in Kenya |Debates, Ideas and Challenges 1 Mutuma Ruteere and Patrick Mutahi Introduction 1 Confronting Violent Extremism in Kenya |Debates, Ideas and Challenges n the last 20 years, terrorism or violent extremism have become security realities, and national social challenges with increasing numbers of young people being recruited to Al-Shabaab Iand other terrorist group. In many parts of the country -- but more so in the coastal and northeastern regions -- violent extremism has also become a social problem for communities and families that have seen their young men and women embrace the extremist ideologies of groups like Al-Shabaab and even sign up as active members. For governments in East Africa and the Horn, terrorism is now a regional security question and a foreign policy priority. In Kenya, the major challenge of terrorism has been the Somalia-based terrorist group Al- Shabaab, which has routinely launched attacks in both border regions and urban areas such as Nairobi. These have ranged from the deadly attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in 2013 which killed over 70 people, to the April 2015 Garissa University College attack that left 148 dead. Many other attacks have targeted civilians in places like Mombasa, Lamu and Mandera. Data from the Centre for Human Rights and Policy for instance indicates that there were 49 attacks recorded between January and November 2017, resulting in 108 deaths. Al-Shabaab has also established local networks in Kenya for the recruitment of young people into the group. Over the years, the Kenyan government has implemented a range of legal and policy measures aimed at countering and preventing the recruitment as well as disrupting the operations of Al-Shabaab and other similar organisations. The magnitude of the threat, the patterns and trends of recruitment and the consequences of State policy responses have all been the subject of ongoing policy and scholarly inquiry in Kenya and globally. These inquiries and critiques are scattered in different platforms and publications and there is very little in the form of an attempt to bring all of these together. The papers in this collection are one of the first attempts at presenting a complex examination of the evolving nature of the problem of violent extremism in Kenya as well as the various counter and preventive measures. The collection brings together critical analyses on a range of issues touching on violent extremism by a multidisciplinary team of scholars and scholar-practitioners with an intimate and long-standing interest on the subject in Kenya, the region and globally. They cover the breadth as well as depth of the complex problem of violent extremism in a manner and language that speaks to both scholars and policy makers. The contributions are concerned with a number of problems related to terrorism in Kenya: the regional nature and dimensions of the problem; legal and judicial developments to counter the threat of terrorism; patterns and trends in the recruitment into Al-Shabaab and other violent extremist groups; State and society interactions, contestations and confrontations in countering violent extremism; location of women in the terrorism discourse; new technologies and how they shape violent extremism; and the questions of rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-combatants and returnees from Al-Shabaab. 2 Confronting Violent Extremism in Kenya |Debates, Ideas and Challenges The aim of this collection is to provoke and stimulate the ongoing scholarly and policy conversations on what the spectre of violent extremism means for Kenya’s future and fortunes as a fledgling democracy. The studies provide