Global Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Domestic Radicalisation in Kenya

Odhiambo E. O. S, Prof.Kennedy Onkware and Maito T.Leshan

Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) incursion into Somalia on October 14, 2011, was in pursuit of Al-Shabaab, the AlQaeda linked Somali terrorist cell group that had abducted foreign aid workers and tourists in Kenya. Since (KDF) October preemptive and preventive attack in Somalia, Al-Shabaab terrorists have executed a number of violent attacks in Kenyan territory like in Westgate mall in Nairobi in September 2013, in which 67 people were killed, Mpeketoni and Poromoko villages of Lamu County on June 16 and 17,where more than 60 people were butchered in cold blood, Mandera on 22 November 2014 in which 28 bus passengers were shot dead for not being able to recite the Koran, in Mandera again on Dec 2, 2014,where 36 quarry workers were killed and Garissa University College and taken responsibility. After the Garissa University College terror attack where 148 people were killed on 2 April, 2015, it has become crystal clear that Kenya has a domestic radicalization problem of its own. Kenyan nationals have conducted a number of recent terrorist attacks in Kenya, with many of them receiving military training from Al-Shabaab in neighboring Somalia. Radical clerics in mosques in Coast Counties, North Eastern Counties and Nairobi County, have recruited youths in Kenya for militancy. This is a desk top research, where we give details of recent terrorist attacks in Kenya and also identifies the factors behind the radicalisation of youths in Kenya.