A Critique of Kenyas Security Sector Reforms (SSR) in the Fight against Terrorism

The waning of the Cold War marked a shift in the concept of security from state-centric to the person-centered notion. In addition, this notion aimed at making security more applicable to such emerging threats of the 21st century such as terrorism, poverty and global warming, which present greater threats to humans than interstate wars. One of the major enduring threats in the provision of security has been radicalism and terrorism. In this regard, states have increasingly treated terrorism and terror threats as the single biggest challenges, initiating, in their wake several reforms in the security sector to deal with the challenge. This paper using data from extensive field research spanning three months and literature from various sources, examined the correlation of security sector reforms and global terrorism with a focus on Kenya. The government of Kenya, since the terrorist attack of 1998, has taken various security sector reforms in order to address the existing weaknesses with the national security architecture. These reforms have involved measures of reorganizing security institutions and rewriting of laws to strengthen these institutions in the fight against global terrorism. Despite the fact that many of these reforms have been undertaken and embedded in the current constitution, the threat of terrorism in Kenya remains a reality. Geo-politically, why do terrorists target Kenya What are the (in) adequacies of existing SSR in curbing terror threats What more can the government and its partners do in order to curb the threat to radicalization of the youth