Counterinsurgency, community participation, and the preventing and countering violent extremism agenda in Kenya

ABSTRACT Over the last six years, the P/CVE agenda has emphasized the need of preventative measures to augment kinetic counterterrorism security approaches. Based on field research in Kenya in 2019, this article analyzes the ‘police power’ of P/CVE, which compels populations to participate in their own security and ensure their own governability, otherwise marking them for elimination. P/CVE is read as a mode of civil counterinsurgency that operates to pacify populations seen as threats to a liberal international order through peacebuilding and development initiatives, curtailing the autonomy of civic space and securitizing the work of community organizations.