By Toluwanimi Olusegun
Background of Terrorism in Kenya
Terrorism has rapidly developed into a global phenomenon within the last twenty years with the coinage of ‘The War on Terror’ by for US President George Bush de-territorialising counterinsurgency measures and initiating collaborative efforts among the nations of the world. The African Continent is not left behind when it comes to terrorism, cutting across different regions and unsettling polities as it continues to challenge the continent’s security sector. The East African region has had its fair share of insecurity with countries such as Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, and Kenya experiencing internecine ethnic conflicts and terrorism. However, the focus herein will be on the Kenyan experience, with specifics on the gender dynamics in the country within the context of its experience of terrorist attacks.
Terrorism in Kenya, according to scholars, has some history behind it beyond recent attacks by the Al Shabaab. Crenshaw (1981) posited that nationalist movements, most often than not, transmute into terrorist organisations. The reason adduced for this was that the movements resort to acts of terror in pushing their agenda. One could argue that an example that fits perfectly with Crenshaw’s view is that of the struggle of independence by the nationalist movement in Kenya. The group known as the MauMau Movement resorted to using terror activities to combat the government of the colonial masters.
In recent times, the trend of terrorism in Kenya has changed from that of the struggle for freedom to assume ethnic, religious and political dimensions. Kenya, located along the equator, has her coastal area on the southeast and shares a border with Somalia to the east. Kenya and Somalia are two countries that have recorded a high number of attacks. According to the 2017 Global- Terrorism index, Somalia ranked 7th and Kenya 22nd on the list of countries with most incidents of terrorist attacks. In the past decade, Kenya has experienced about thirty attacks from the extremist group Al-Shabaab, mainly because of the presence its military in Somalia. Kenya sent troops in October 2011 to Somalia to help in the combat against the terrorist group through “Operation Linda Nchi” (Reuters 2011). After the troop had solely carried out the operation for about seven months, they joined forces with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). AMISOM then comprised a combination of the military forces of Uganda, Djibouti, Sierra-Leone, Burundi, Kenya and Ethiopia.
One of the most visible impacts of the activities of the terrorist Group Al-Shabaab in Kenya is displacement. Apart from the internally displaced, there are also refugees from across the border country Somalia who have fled rapidly from their country because of the activities of the terrorists and other conflict situations. As a result of this displacement, which necessitates the search for protection and humanitarian assistance, the displaced persons became vulnerable to different ills. One of the most common is Gender-Based violence (GBV).
Gender-based violence is most of the time misconstrued to mean violence against women. GBV is not just about women. It is a global pandemic that is inflicted on men, women and even children. GBV is also about structural inequalities between the two genders. The definition by USAID (2004) explains the term Gender-Based Violence with some clarity that portrays this. It states that: Violence directed at an individual based on his or her biological sex, gender identity or perceived adherence to socially defined norms of masculinity and femininity. It includes physical, sexual and psychological abuse, threats, coercion, arbitrary deprivation of liberty, and economic deprivation, whether occurring in public or private life. Gender-Based violence can include female infanticide, child sexual abuse, sex trafficking and forced labour, sexual coercion and abuse, neglect, domestic abuse and harmful traditional practices such as early and forced marriages, honour killings and female genital mutilation/cutting.
Once there is an armed conflict or a disaster, the highest number of victims is usually found most among the civilians though from research, it has been discovered that women and children suffer the effects more than men. This is the situation whenever there is a terrorist attack in Kenya. Most of the time, these vulnerable members of the population suffer from different forms of physical violence, emotional violence, different forms of abuses, deliberate deprivation to mention but a few. (Agalajobi 2009). Displaced persons are vulnerable to violence either on their way to their new haven or even upon their arrival there.
Progressively, the views on war and the “collateral damage” that ensues from conflicts between opposing groups changed, and one of the notable changes relate to the manner in which gender-based violence during armed conflicts is perceived. UNIFEM (2011) perceives that gender-based violence has always been considered as a “by-product” of war, mainly affecting girls and women in war-torn societies.
There has been a significant attention to the plight of displaced persons (internally displaced and refugees) living in overcrowded camps in Kenya. Yet there is little focus on the growing number of the displaced persons especially the refugees, living in its urban cities. The exact figure of the displaced population in the capital city Nairobi is not known. Despite the high figures, both quantitative and qualitative information available on these populations remain scarce. In Nairobi, the displaced persons are dispersed all over the city. They are usually very mobile because they are reluctant to come forward for support as a result of fear that they could be sent to camps or face deportation in the case of refugees.
It was noted that there are different patterns of gender-based violence that occur among the displaced people in Kenya. The patterns are basically categorized into three: physical, emotional and sexual violence. The physical form of violence usually occurs in forms of beating, pushing, inflicting deliberate wounds with sharp objects and pouring of hot substances like acid and hot water. Emotional violence usually manifests in form of shaming through verbal abuse of partners in public, threats, denial of fundamental human rights such as ability to go out at will by locking the victim up in a building. The last pattern, which is the sexual violence, occurs in forms like rape, domestic violence (usually among couples), and gender mutilation. Cases of gender mutilation are usually recorded from more women than men.
At the end of the research, it became evident that that among the three types of violence, the sexual form of violence is the most reported form of GBV among the displaced persons in Kenya. Most of the respondents mentioned sexual violence as the most common especially rape and forced sex which is also domestic violence.
In conclusion, despite all the efforts to curb the terrorists’ acts in Kenya, there are still reports of fresh attacks, while some of the counter terrorism efforts by the government have, in some ways, brought about more distress to the people. The fallout of this is the increasing number of displaced people from the affected region. While efforts are continually made to end terrorists’ activities, the feasibility of ending gender-based violence among the displaced persons without proper planning is doubtable. However, if certain things are put into consideration, the rate can reduced. Based on the findings from this research, amongst other recommendations, the government of Kenya can properly domesticate the provisions of international humanitarian laws that protect refugees and displaced persons. Efforts can also be put in place by different stakeholders to sensitize host communities and displaced persons on the evils of gender-based violence, as well as some of the other harmful traditional practices.
References
Crenshaw, M. (1981) “The causes of Terrorism” in comparative politics vol 13, Middle town, Wesleyan University Press.
Global Terrorism Index 2017: Measuring and understanding the impact of terrorism. Institute for Economics & Peace report 55. ISBN 978-0-6480644-6-6
Agbalajobi, D.T. (2009). “The role of African women in peace Building and Conflict Resolution: The case of Burundi”, Global media journal 8, 15.
Reuters. (2011). Kenya Launches Offensive in Somalia. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
UNIFEM (2011) Violence against women UN Commission for women http://www.unifem.org . Retrieved August 28, 2015.
USAID (2004) Sexual Terrorism : Rape as a weapon of war in eastern democratic Republic of Congo. An assessment of programmatic responses to sexual violence in North Kivu, south Kivu, Mariema and orientate provinces, United States agency for international development Washington, D.C, 18 March 2004.
Toluwanimi Olusegun has a Master of Arts Degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Ibadan and writes from St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada