Engineered Disorder: Inequality, State Evasion, and the Political Utility of Gangs in Kenya
Kenya’s gang crisis is routinely framed as a failure of law enforcement. This framing is analytically insufficient. The recent response by the Interior Cabinet Secretary, which attributes the rise of gangs to political sponsorship and judicial leniency, identifies proximate factors while avoiding structural causation. The persistence of gang activity reflects not a breakdown of order, but the outcome of an economic system that systematically excludes a large segment of its youth population. Each year, a significant number of young people enter a labour market that cannot absorb them. Formal employment remains limited, while the informal sector expands amid instability and…