Description
This thesis examines the Kenyan government’s (GoK’s) increasingly responsive strategy, and its implementation, in combating transnational terrorism focusing on the case studies of the 1998 US Embassy bombing and the 2002 terrorist attacks in Mombasa, Kenya. The analytical research methodology used is the qualitative case study method. It identifies the factors regarding why terrorists targeted Kenya, how Kenya reacted, and the perceived improvements in Kenya’s response to these attacks. Deeper analysis is done by means of analyzing Kenya’s use of traditional and nontraditional instruments of power in its war on terrorism. They are identified and assessed, based on the two case studies, through the submission of questionnaires to an independent panel of experts knowledgeable on Kenya’s fight against transnational terrorism. The analysis of the response indicates that the Kenyan government was moderately effective in employing the instruments of power between 1998 and 2001. After the 2002 terrorist attacks, it effectively applied the instruments of power to mitigate the threat and developed a comprehensive national strategy against transnational terrorism. The conclusion of this study is that while the Kenyan government’s counterterrorism strategy is becoming increasingly more effective in combating transnational terrorism in terms of the strategy’s ends and ways, it falls short of applying the appropriate means in reducing the underlying conditions that make Kenya an easy target for terrorist acts. Recommendations, both short-term and long-term, are proposed to assist the GoK in conducting an even more effective counterterrorism strategy.
