Confronting Violent Extremism in Kenya:  Debates, Ideas and Challenges

Edited by Mutuma Ruteere and Patrick Mutahi

This pioneering 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.

The aim of the papers in 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 new knowledge, data and perspectives on the nature, magnitude and dimensions of the problem of violent extremism in Kenya. The studies are nuanced but have not shied away from recognising difficulties, highlighting policy and knowledge gaps and making policy recommendations where possible.