Kenya’s Model for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism

In 1994, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published its Human Development Report and defined human security as “freedom from fear” and “freedom from want.” The UN General Assembly, vide resolution 66/290 of 2012, described human security as “the right of people to live in freedom and dignity, free from poverty and despair.” The implementation of Kenya’s National Strategy for Countering Violent Extremism undertaken under the coordination of the National Counter Terrorism Centre is the contextualization of human security at its best and one of the pioneer efforts in the world to customise the United Nation’s Secretary General Plan of Action to prevent and counter violent extremism. This paper focuses on a brief discourse on human security. It illustrates Kenya’s model of preventing and countering violent extremism and exemplifies its character as a homegrown solution to a perennial security problem. The implementation of the strategy is a departure from state-based security towards an all-of-society-based security system. The emergent enlightened and empowered society, choosing to confront their vulnerabilities rather than live in fear of violent extremists, is a chronicle worth unfurling. The methodology is largely qualitative. The paper relies mostly on documentary analysis of national and county-level strategies for countering violent extremism, action plans, surveys, and research policy reports on violent extremism trends and dynamics in the region. The paper also elucidates the good practices arising out of the gallant efforts that can be shared regionally and internationally, especially in view of the perplexing spread of violent extremism in Africa.