FIGHTING EXTREMISM AT SOURCE
Again, experts believe Nairobi’s response to the attack in Mpeketoni highlights what is missing.
Communities such as those in Lamu harbour a deep-rooted mistrust of the Kenyan government, particularly over land they feel belongs to them but has been given to others, and the sense that they will be excluded from economic development plans.
In a recent policy paper for the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre, David Anderson, professor of African history at the University of Warwick, argued that these factors, coupled with the perception that Muslims were being victimised, made communities like this “soft targets” for recruitment by Al Shabaab.
Turning a blind eye to these dynamics and alienating Muslim citizens with operations like Usalama Watch means that “the state is simply playing into Al Shabaab hands”, he said.
When Kenyatta blamed the Lamu attacks on local politics, Anderson said, he was missing the point.
“Local politics was involved not to the exclusion of Al Shabaab, but quite simply because Al Shabaab is learning how to turn Kenya’s toxic politics to its own very dangerous and violent disadvantage,” Anderson wrote. “Al Shabaab recognises how effectively they can exploit local politics by harnessing it to their own cause.”
(This article is part of IWPR’s Kenya Security series. It was produced as part of a media development programme implemented by IWPR and Wayamo Communication Foundation in partnership with Capital FM)
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