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Violent extremism is an ambiguous and politically loaded concept, and – at the national level – the parameters used to define it are usually framed by the state, powerful ruling elites, and members of the international community, either directly or indirectly through donor-funded projects. Although different types of violent extremism and extremist movements exist in Kenya, donors and the state often focus on religiously-inspired groups such as Al-Shabaab, the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, and affiliated networks such as the Al-Muhajiroun, Al-Hijra, and Jaysh Al-Ayman. However, at a community level, participants in our body map workshops highlighted gang violence, police brutality, ethnically motivated violence, marginalisation, discrimination, and gender-based violence as priorities in defining violent extremism. We conclude that constructions of violent extremism at the local level are shaped by lived experiences of everyday insecurities influenced by gender, ethnicity, social status, location, and interactions with the state. To effectively address violent extremism in Kenya and beyond, its definition needs to be contextualised in ways that take into consideration local perspectives and everyday experiences of violence and insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Police and gangs have rarely featured as important loci of popular cultural forms, especially in Africa. As an institution, the police in Kenya are abstruse, opaque and often seen as against, and not for society. Popular culture is not only a window and a peek into how a society mainstreams ways of "looking" but also a way through which society articulates potentially controversial subjects. Nothing comes close to the controversy surrounding the subject of police killings of suspected gang members in Eastlands, Nairobi, Kenya. News reports on crime in Nairobi, drawing from news-gathering routines and news values that privilege specific experiences while excluding others, have framed gang violence in specific "singular narratives." However, Facebook use in Eastlands Nairobi provides a unique canvas through which the imaginary of a "super-cop" is given multiple, if not conflicting meanings. "Super-cops" describe an unorthodox form of policing where specific policemen (mostly male), through a mix of public consent and state sanction, particularly in Eastlands, Nairobi, use extrajudicial means to confront suspected violent gangs. This paper reveals how Facebook groups' discourse in Eastlands provides lenses that circulate alternative, if not equally controversial readings of so-called "super-cops" in ways that draw from Kenya's conflicted urban histories to managing violent gangs in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mombasa is well known for problems with gangs. Some of them are composed of a high proportion of youths under 18 years, with some as young as 7 years old. Many use drugs, some carry out thefts, and some are known for large-scale violent robberies with the use of knives, severely injuring members of the public. In an attempt to manage the problem, the killing of perpetrators through mob justice or in police operations is commonplace. This paper contributes to our understanding of youths in gangs and interventions to tackle gang violence. We argue that not all "gangs" are involved in criminal activity. However, some gang members may be viewed as perpetrators of violent crime but also as victims of marginalisation and unfavourable environments, which constrain life choices, making violent crime a frequent path. Moreover, criminal justice approaches have failed these youths. The current inconsistent, corrupt and brutal approach by police serves to compound the problem, while external actors benefiting from youth gangs' operations are tolerated by the state. Increased resistance is evident as youth gangs tend to increase their violence against the public in order to take "revenge" against the police. Structural violence is an important cause of the problem and is also replicated in current mitigation approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on ethnographic research in two slum areas of Nairobi, Kibera and Korogocho, this article explains the meaning and function of ad hoc acts of lynching called mob justice. The article treats mob justice as a specific type of institution that reflects local rules of life and argues that the analysis of such acts must take into account that they are produced within a broader social framework in which they are practised. Mob justice undergoes reproduction to maintain the communities of Kibera and Korogocho. The form of lynching stems not from the fact that it is limiting crime but that it produces an imaginary realisation of a certain dimension of experience of the mob's members, which is collective agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]