Radicalization across East Africa has increased in recent years.
1 Affecting both Kenya and Tanzania, both
countries have focused national and regional efforts to prevent and counter2 violent extremism. To inform
these efforts, extensive research has been conducted in the region, especially on push and pull factors of
violent extremism (VE). While knowledge of overarching push and pull factors, such as unemployment,
corruption, drug trafficking, etc., is critical to understand drivers of violent extremism, an in-depth
understanding of stakeholders and community members who have the power to influence others’
decisions to participate in violent extremism groups is needed to inform more effective programming
addressing this issue.