Boundary anxieties and infrastructures of violence: Somali identity in post-Westgate Kenya

Okech, Awino

Abstract

This article explores infrastructures of violence created by ongoing contestations around insecurity related to violent insurgency in Kenya. It draws on public discourses and policy responses emerging from the September 2013 terror attack at Westgate in Nairobi. In examining security policies developed to cordon off particular geographical sites and therefore construct Kenyan Somalis as the ‘other’, I argue that what is produced is a mobile security infrastructure. This mobility is evident in a move from a singular focus on physical security installations and visible security personnel, to less visible forms of security which rely on surveillance both by the state and citizens. I examine how security infrastructure discursively and through policy mobilise and redefine Somali1 masculinities as other and therefore dangerous.

Citation

Okech, A. (2018). Boundary anxieties and infrastructures of violence: Somali identity in post-Westgate Kenya. Third world thematics, 3(2), 293-309. https://doi.org/10.1080/23802014.2018.1502048

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 16, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Aug 6, 2018
• Publication Date: Aug 6, 2018
• Deposit Date: Aug 13, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 13, 2018
• Print ISSN: 2380-2014
• Electronic ISSN: 2379-9978
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 293-309
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23802014.2018.1502048