Awino Okech

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

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.

Uhambo: pieces of a dream - Waiting in the Ambiguity of Liminality

Waiting / for the house I was promised / the one I put my name on the list for / for the politician’s poetic speech to turn concrete / for the new-country-new-nation-media-mantra / to sink into the broken soil of my community / the aching earth / witness to our history / bearing all our memories / cut into pieces of property / sold to the highest bidder / or patched with matchbox houses / one step up from cardboard and corrugated iron / waiting / waiting / waiting for our women to have safety and security / for the gender politics to change / not just quotas, conferences, tokens and reports / for mutual respect / for equality / waiting / for my children to experience a better reality / for the return of old values / the return to district six / the resurrec- tion of Sophiatown’s spirit / for unity / waiting / for this democracy joke to make sense / for the conviction of my rapist / for the results of my HIV test / for medication for my infected baby / for a decrease in the number of AIDS-related deaths / waiting / waiting / for return of all our missing children / or news of where they are / at least the truth of how they died / waiting / for my husband to come home / for my son to be released from prison / for a decent job / for fresh water / for food to keep out the cold / waiting / for the bombings / the killings and the wartalk to end / waiting / to be seen / to be rec- ognised as human / not alien or enemy / waiting / to return home / for peace to descend / for freedom to come home / to come true / for all that it means / to me and you.

The convergence and divergence of three pillars of influence in gender and security

This article explores the convergence between three pillars of influence – feminist security studies, civil society activism and policy decision-making – and its role in the adoption and implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325. It argues that these three pillars, individually and collectively, have made important contributions to the debate and action on the gender and security agenda, but that they remain organically disconnected. Their convergence has the potential to achieve path-breaking results in the sphere of gender and security, whilst their divergence makes transformation unattainable. We show the disconnect in the application of UNSCR 1325 in Africa and argue that this is partly the reason why, despite enormous efforts, the gains realised in terms of gender equality in the peace and security arena have been negligible.