The threat of terrorism posed by al Qaida’s affiliate in the Horn of Africa region, al Shabab, has been increasing in Kenya since 2011. The fight against al Shabab by Kenyan security forces and agencies has been intensified. While the operations have degraded the terrorists militarily, their ideological infrastructure remains intact. The group continues to radicalize and recruit the Kenyan youth in vulnerable regions and pocketsin Kenya such as the Upper Eastern, Nairobi, Central, North Eastern and Coastal regions. Home-grown terrorists and lone wolves have increasingly become a feature in the evolution of terrorism in Kenya.

This PTP program is designed to secure the progress made in the fight against terrorism, and intensify prevention of terrorism measures. The project focuses on trends of radicalization, recruitment, violent extremism, and terrorism in Kenya through physical and virtual spaces. It emphasizes on ideological ‘pushback’ to reverse such trends.

Two key components of the PTP program are Disruption of Extremist Narratives (DEN), and Deep and Extreme Dialogue (DED). These two components are reinforced through CVE capacity building. The ‘root-cause’ approach is used to addressthe ideological conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism and violent extremism among the ‘at-risk’ communities in the most vulnerable regions of Kenya.