The Nexus Between Socio-Demographic Characteristics and Islamic Radicalization in Garissa County, Kenya

Abstract

The global threat of Islamism inspired terrorism has witnessed an upsurge in different parts of the world in the recent past. The threat of terror has been alive in Kenya in the recent past and hence the desire to understand the link between the social and demographic characteristics and Islamic radicalization.The study adopted Social Distance Theory. The descriptive correlational approach described the status of the variables while showing how the variables relate in the natural setting. It was conducted in six sub-counties of Garissa County where respondents included Islamic clerics and scholars, government security officials (County commissioner, chiefs and ATPU), the community (Nyumba kumi committees and household heads) and radicalized youths. The study established that Islamisms influences Al-shaabab activities in Garissa County by playing on the emotion of the locals in the area in terms of the economic status with factors like poverty and economic marginalization being the major areas of weakness that the Al-shabaab terror group is exploiting to infiltrate the community in Garissa County.