The Underlying Dynamics of Al-Shabaab’s Recruitment of Muslim Youth: A Case of Mombasa County in Kenya

Most Kenyan Muslim youth serving in militant Al-Shabaab have been constructed as a threat to national security and stability in the security policing. As a result forceful government actions to counter radicalization and recruitment has been met with a reaction of violence in response. Little research has been done to try and understand why these youth make the choices they make. Within Mombasa Muslim youth have continued to live in deteriorating structural conditions that have left them disenfranchised and at the periphery of the society. In turn rather than acting docile, youth have resorted to exploit their networks and connections for inclusion in Al-Shabaab. This reaction in most cases has been violence in response to state violence thus making radicalization a cycle. Using the life story technique and participant observation to unpack the youth’s experiences, this paper integrates social exclusion and social capital theories to analyse the structural challenges the youth face.