Influence of the goverment returnees's amnesty programme on terrorism activities in Kwale county , Kenya

Abstract

The return of former foreign terrorist fighters to Kenya has increased terrorism activities in the country. The National Government had initially employed counter terrorism measures in dealing with the returnees but in 2015, it rolled out the returnees’ amnesty programme. However, terrorism activities continued to rock Kwale County, which has the highest number of returnees, even after introduction of the returnees’ amnesty programme among other interventions. The study sought to assess the influence of the government returnees’ amnesty programme on terrorism activities in Kwale County, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to: establish the effects of the returnees’ amnesty programme on terrorism activities; examine the strategies employed by the government in the implementation of the returnees’ amnesty programme; evaluate the role of Non-State Actors (NSAs) in the returnees’ amnesty programme; and assess the level of local community participation in the returnees’ amnesty programme in Kwale County, Kenya. The study was guided by John Locke’s Social Contract theory, and employed a descriptive survey research design, combining both qualitative and quantitative survey. The target population of the study was one hundred and seventy three thousand, one hundred and seventy six heads of households in Kwale. An interview schedule was used to collect data from four hundred heads of households who were randomly sampled and key informant interview guide was used to interview sixteen key informants purposively sampled. The return rate was 100% and after analysis, the response rate was 99%. Ethical and legal factors such as consent and confidentiality were observed. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS for descriptive statistics and presented in figures and tables while qualitative data was analyzed thematically and presented in verbatim to corroborate the quantitative data. The study established that the returnees’ amnesty programme has reduced terrorism activities in the county by 81%; the key national government support to returnees are economic support, psychosocial rehabilitation and vocational training rehabilitation and economic support to the affected families; NGOs are the main NSAs involved in the amnesty programme and they mainly assist in rehabilitation of the returnees; and many community members do not participate in the programme due to high societal stigmatization of the returnees, programme participants and the affected families. Based on the study findings, the study concludes that the government returnees’ amnesty programme strategies have been effective in reducing terrorismactivities in Kwale County. However, the participation of the community in the programme is low due to rampant stigmatization of the programme participants, the returnees and the affected families. The study recommends that the National Government, Kwale County Government and Non-State Actors need to synergize in sensitizing the community in order to improve their participation and assist in mobbing up of the remaining returnees.