‘Killing a mosquito with a hammer’: Al-Shabaab violence and state security responses in Kenya
In recent years, Kenya has witnessed an expanding number of attacks involving Al-Shabaab – the Somali-based militant organisation
Abstract
Networked, transnational forms of violence pose a significant threat to peace and security in a number of sub-Saharan African countries. In recent years, Kenya has witnessed an expanding number of attacks involving Al-Shabaab – the Somali-based militant organisation.
This article considers the nature and dynamics of recent, networked, transnational forms of violence affecting ‘the margins’. These describe not only remote, rural areas. In Kenya, because of deep divisions, insurgent margins exist in other places and interstices existing within wider society and politics, showing how marginality is experienced socially and politically.
This work is part of the ‘Large development investment and local peacebuilding in rural Africa: building and sustaining peace at the margins’ project supported by the Economic and Social Research Council and the UK Department for International Development
Citation
Jeremy Lind, Patrick Mutahi & Marjoke Oosterom (2017) ‘Killing a mosquito with a hammer’: Al-Shabaab violence and state security responses in Kenya, Peacebuilding, 5:2, 118-135, DOI: 10.1080/21647259.2016.1277010
Links
‘Killing a mosquito with a hammer’: Al-Shabaab violence and state security responses in Kenya