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EXPERIENCES OF VICTIMIZATION AS A MOTIVATING

FACTOR TO TERRORISM BEHAVIOUR IN KENYA

By

MUCHEMI PETER

Kenya, Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs

P.O. Box 2134–20300, Nyahururu, Kenya

Author Contributions

This work has been fully done and written by Dr. Peter Muchemi.

Editors

1. Oyster Dan, Professor in Criminology, University of Nigeria.

2. Nad Esther, Lecturer in Community Policing, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Reviewers

1. Prof Gac Bernard, ASU School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona.

2. Dr. Hillary Tom, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice Northeastern University,

California.

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

1. Corresponding Author: Muchemi Peter, Email: [email protected] 2. Citation: Muchemi (2017): Experiences of Victimization as a Motivating Factor to Terrorism Behavior in

Kenya. (J. Afr. Res. Dev. (Kericho)) Vol. 1: Issue 2 (2017) pp: 84-106.

Copy right: @ Muchemi (2017): This is an open access article distributed for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in

any medium, provided the original author and source is credited.

JOURNAL OF AFRICAN RESEARCH

AND DEVELOPMENT (JARD)

J.Afr.Res.Dev.(Kericho): www.jard.or.ke

ISSN 2517-9365: ISBN: 978-9966-098-38-2

7(2017):1-022, 2017, Article No. JARD-02-022-17 Accepted on 22nd December, 2016; Reviewed on 10th February, 2017 and Published on 1st March, 2017

mailto:[email protected]

[Muchemi, 2017]


ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to review research on how people can be influenced by personal

experiences of victimization whether real or imagined towards terror behavior tendencies. There

have been a series of studies conducted to examine the profile of terrorists. So far, it has been

observed that many forms of terrorisms exist, and their character has changed over time and from

country to country, hence making it even more difficult to establish a profile for terrorist. Further,

it has been observed that, individually, there is not a single factor that can help explain why people

become terrorists, but, taken in combination, religious, political, psychological and ideological

factors do provide a powerful framework for understanding why a person might choose to become

a terrorist. A factor that features in the profiles of Jermaine Lindsay and Osama-bin-Laden is their

mistreatment when they were at their tender ages. For example the mistreatment of bin-Laden by

his father and the fact that he witnessed his mother being mistreated, is an indication that Osama

may have felt victimized in his formative stages, a factor that may have guided his actions

throughout life either consciously or unconsciously. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize

what has been reported from the scientific and professional literature about the psychology of

terrorism, paying particular attention to the subsequent behavior tendencies of people who have

had personal experiences of victimization. This may help unveil how personal experiences of

victimization can serve as a contributing factor to terrorism behavior among Kenyan nationals.

Keywords: Revenge, Terrorism, Terrorist, Victimization

.

INTRODUCTION

Dealing with terrorism has become the

centerpiece of many world countries foreign

policy today. There exists terrorist

organizations in different contexts

worldwide and we have also seen an

internationalization of terrorist activity

(Varvin, 2003). However, there seems to be

insufficient explanation on what causes

people to engage in terrorism. The theory of

personal victimization as a cause of people

engaging in terrorism has not been fully

explored. Due to a strong desire for revenge,

the person or group of persons may target

the power elite in society for example or the

group perceived to be the avenger in the

hope that they will be able to correct the

injustices caused. In an effort to increase the

understanding of how personal victimization

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can contribute to people engaging in

terrorism this paper reviews literature that

attempts to explain how victimized people

would later turn to become terrorists.

Ombaka (2015) observes that, in Kenya for

example the colonial policies that neglected

certain areas of the country as being

agriculturally unproductive hence not

worthy of any meaningful social or

economic investment, as such previous

governments may have shown little presence

and little basis to earn either the loyalty or

regard from the populations residing in these

regions. This may have lead to feelings of

victimization among people living therein.

In these circumstances, as the Ethics and

Anti-Corruption (EACC) notes, the control

of state power means control over public

wealth, which in turn leads to patronage,

tribalism, looting and bribery (EACC,

2006). This may amplify feelings of

victimization among people living in such

areas. This review will be important in

highlighting causes of terror behaviors and

hence help amplify the need to help heal the

victimized to prevent them from graduating

to terrorists.

DEFINITION OF TERRORISM

Borum (2004) defines terrorism as acts of

violence intentionally perpetrated on civilian

non-combatants with the goal of furthering

some ideological, religious or political

objective. He adds that psychological or

emotional harm is as relevant as physical

harm, and that injury is merely an outcome

and not a descriptor of the act.

In Kenyan context, terrorism has been

defined as anti-state violent activities

undertaken by non-state entities which are

motivated by religious goals (Mogire &

Agade, 2011). Aronson (2013) argues that

this definition neglects terrorism based on

political, ideological, and criminal rationales

and thus, places an unfair target on the

minority religion in Kenya. The definition of

terrorism as given by many authors, could

therefore be vague and thus, able to be

contested by many opponents. This lack of a

consensus definition may have contributed

to the challenges encountered in attempts to

psychologically profile terrorists as will be

seen in the next section.

Victoroff (2005) agree that there are many

definitions of terrorism observing that the

lack of a consensus in definition of terrorism

is inescapable, given the heterogeneity of

terrorist behaviors. According research

(Victoroff, 2005 & Laqueur, 1999) two

common elements are usually found in

contemporary definitions of terrorism: first,

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that terrorism involves aggression against

non-combatants and secondly, the terrorist

action in itself is not expected by its

perpetrator to accomplish a political goal but

instead to influence a target audience and

change that audience's behavior in a way

that will serve the interests of the terrorist.

The typology of terrorism is therefore

complex and controversial since actors can

be characterized across multiple variables.

Today however, the idea that terrorism

involves aggression against non-combatants

may not really stand. A number of terror

acts has of late been directed towards armed

officers and army camps in Kenya and in

Somalia.

CHALLENGES IN PROFILING

TERRORISTS

According to Kruglanski and Fishman

(2006), the emerging consensus is that no

systematic personality differences seem to

demarcate terrorists as a category from non-

terrorists. Nor has there been much support

that poverty or oppression is the root causes

of terrorism. Attempts to create a single

typology of terrorism or generic profiles for

terrorists have therefore been found to be

often misleading (Omer Ta¸Spinar, 2009).

However, Kruglanski and Fishman (2006)

observe that, that does not mean that certain

personality characteristics, like

authoritarianism, narcissism, collectivism, or

sensation seeking could not predispose some

people under some circumstances to

embrace terrorism-justifying ideologies. Nor

does it mean that poverty or oppression

could not, under some circumstances, be

channeled into a support for terrorism. In

other words, personality traits, political and

economic conditions among others could

well constitute contributing factors to

terrorism but are unlikely to constitute the

root causes of terrorism in any useful

meaning of this term. This may be

suggesting that elements of oppression that

generate feelings of victimization are likely

to make a person participate in terrorist

activities, the motive perhaps being to

liberate oneself or a group. However, this

may not be the sole identified cause of

terrorism.

Borum (2004) contends that there is no

terrorist personality, nor is there any

accurate psychological profile of the

terrorist. He notes that, personality traits

alone tend not to be very good predictors of

behavior. Hence, the quest to understand

terrorism by studying terrorist personality

traits according to Borum is likely to be an

unproductive area for further investigation

and inquiry. Such an argument should

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however not deter further research

investigations into the terrorist’s personality.

It is important to note that in the field of

terrorism studies, a number of researchers

(Horgan & Taylor, 2001) seem to agree that

the transition into becoming a terrorist is

rarely sudden and abrupt. This suggests that

there is rarely a conscious decision made by

an individual to become a terrorist. Most

involvement in terrorism according to

Horgan (2005) results from gradual

exposure and socialization towards extreme

behavior, he highlights that it is generally

accepted that terrorists do not become

terrorists over night adding that, they follow

a general progression from social alienation

to boredom, then occasional dissidence and

protest before eventually turning to

terrorism. This tends to confirm that, the

element of social alienation can generate a

sense of victimization, which may become a

motivating factor for a person to turn into a

terrorist. Hence, certain environmental

conditions in a person’s life including social,

political, psychological, or religious can

predispose him or her to becoming a

terrorist based on his or her vulnerability.

One of the predisposing factors could be

personal feeling of victimization.

THEORIES ACCOUNTING FOR

INFLUENCE OF PERSONAL

EXPERIENCES OF VICTIMIZATION

ON TERRORISM BEHAVIOUR

There is no single theory that has gained

ascendance as a single explanatory model

for terrorism or all types of violence.

However, the following theories seem to

suggest that personal feeling of

victimization has a contribution to people

turning into terrorists in their life (Victoroff,

2005).

Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

This theory raises the question of how

politically motivated people reach the point

of no return at which their potential energy

is converted into violent action. The

frustration-aggression hypothesis, attributes

the final expression of the terrorist impulse

to desperation in the face of oppression

(Friedland 1992). Political psychologist

Davies (1973) observes that violence is

always a response to frustration. However,

the application of this theory to terrorism

studies has been criticized on several

grounds. For example, millions of people

live in frustrating circumstances but never

turn to terrorism, additionally many

terrorists do not belong to the desperate

classes whose frustration they claim to be

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expressing, and terrorism does not uniformly

appear to be an act of last resort by those

who have exhausted alternate approaches

(Friedland 1992; Sidanius & Pratto 1999).

Frustration, therefore, may plausibly play

some part in the genesis of some political

violence, but the frustration-aggression

hypothesis is not by itself sufficient to

explain terrorism.

Relative Deprivation Theory

It has also been proposed that economic

disparities cause terrorism. This claim

underlies Gurr's (1970) theory of relative

deprivation in which rebellions come to be

when people cannot bear the misery of their

lot. The theory is said to derive more from

psychoanalysis. However, irrespective of

these psychiatric roots, multiple writers have

claimed a sociological link between poverty

and terrorism (Harmon 2000; Hasisi &

Pedahzur 2000; Krueger and Maleckova

2002). More recently, increasing differences

between the material welfare of the haves

and have-nots have been postulated to

provoke a new era of political violence that

will accelerate as globalization not only

creates new foci of poverty but also

facilitates communication between those

who perceive themselves to be

globalization's victims (Maya, Lander &

Ungar 2002). One possibility is that either

absolute deprivation or relative economic

disparity ignites terrorist sentiments,

especially among members of an oppressed

underclass. The major European revolutions

of the eighteenth through the early twentieth

century’s were probably provoked, at least

in part, by class disparities. From the French

to the Russian revolutions, have-nots

indisputably became major participants in

political violence (Zamoyski, 1999). On the

other hand, as noted above, the left-wing

terrorists of the 1960s to 1970s were not

usually impoverished; indeed, they were

sometimes accused of belonging to idle

middle class that expropriated the misery of

a different class to serve their own goals.

Therefore, although poverty may play a role

in some political violence, relative

deprivation is neither necessary nor

sufficient to explain revolutionary terrorism.

Evidence also exists that right-wing

extremism occurs independent of economic

status. Canetti and Pedahzur (2002), for

example, reported that right-wing extremist

sentiments were unrelated to socioeconomic

variables among 1,247 Israeli university

students. Krueger and Maleckova's (2002)

previously cited important work with

Palestinians, does not support a simple

poverty-causes-terrorism conclusion.

[Muchemi, 2017]


However, their analysis is based on

socioeconomic background, not on

socioeconomic prospects. It is therefore pre-

mature to rule out the possibility that

diminished economic prospects have helped

provoke Palestinian terrorism (Bennet

2004). Furthermore, nationalist-separatist

and many religious fundamentalist terrorists

tend to enjoy the support of their

communities. In such cases, terrorism may

be a prosocial activity ostensibly undertaken

on behalf of all classes. If the entire in-group

(that of the political actor) faces economic

disparities relative to an out-group (that of

the privileged target), participation in

political violence would not be expected to

be an economic class phenomenon but a

group-of-identity phenomenon. Further

research need to be conducted to determine

the relationship between class of origin,

economic expectations, individual factors,

and terrorism.

Oppression Theory

Post, Sprinzak, and Denny (2003) observes

that, nationalist-separatist or ethnic-sectarian

terrorism {e.g., Euzkadi ta Askatasuna

(ETA), Provisional Irish Republican Army

(PIRA), Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamiya

(Hamas)} actors, often cite the injustice of

their treatment by governments that rob

them of identity, dignity, security, and

freedom as the motive for their joining a

terrorist group. Although it is difficult to

measure oppression itself and since the

impact of oppression may be felt

subjectively to greater or lesser degrees by

individuals within a community at risk, it is

likely that perceived oppression may be a

variable to examine as a potential risk factor

for terrorism. Currently no persuasive

empirical evidence is available supporting

the much-cited hypothesis that oppression or

its perception drives the behavior of

terrorists. Even if perceived oppression

could be shown to breed terrorism, it would

never be a sufficient explanation. As Silke

(2003) said so well, "Very few individuals

of aggrieved minorities go on to become

active terrorists. Hence, there is need for in-

depth research to find out whether people

who are oppressed are likely to habour

feelings of victimization and hence result to

terror acts.

Psychoanalytic Theories- Identity,

Narcissism and Paranoia Theories

The idea that terrorism is rooted in

childhood abuse is a relatively common

theme, and is still held by some

contemporary analysts (Borum, 2004).

Psychoanalysis is based on the proposition

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that much of mental life is unconscious, that

psychological development proceeds in

stages based on infantile sexual fantasies,

and that psychological distress derives from

unresolved intrapsychic conflict regarding

those fantasies (Gabbard 2000). The

"dynamics" of this theory was literally

derived from nineteenth-century concepts of

physics, in which the flow of mental and

libidinal energy is deterministically

expressed, repressed, or discharged. The

theory has variants, but they share the

notions that (1) parenting (as opposed to

intrinsic temperament), determines

psychological temperament and health; (2)

active, unconscious forces exclude

unpleasant thoughts from the consciousness;

and (3) relationships with others, are

controlled by unconscious forces such as

projection-the theory that one irrationally

attributes one's own attitude to others

(Gabbard 2000). Psychoanalytic approaches

to terrorist behavior may be divided

according to their emphasis on identity

theory, narcissism theory and paranoia

theory.

Identity Theory

It has been proposed that candidates for

terrorism are young people lacking self-

esteem who have strong or even desperate

needs to consolidate their identities. The

theory of psychologist Erikson (1959), that

adolescents reach a stage of identity

formation at which ideologies assist in self-

definition is the basis of this theory. Young

people turn to political violence in a

desperate search for identity acting alone

(e.g., perhaps Charles Bishop, a fifteen-year-

old who flew a small airplane into a bank in

early 2002, leaving a suicide note declaring

his allegiance with al Qaeda) (Rosenberg,

Waddell & Smalley 2002), yet they may be

very eager to join groups-a behavior offering

an instantaneous grafting of identity.

According to Rosenberg, Waddell and

Smalley 2002, identity-starved joiners are

also hypothesized to be motivated by a

desire to embrace the intimate tutelage of a

charismatic leader-a form of anaclitic

devotion (choosing a love object who

resembles a parent). To date, no controlled

empirical study testing the applicability of

this theory to young terrorists has been

published, hence the need for more

empirical study in this area.

Narcissism Theory

Kohut's (1978) self psychology approaches

have been used to explain the sequence that

drives young people to terrorism. Self

psychology emphasizes the needs that an

infant has for caring responses to develop

normally. Failure of maternal empathy leads

[Muchemi, 2017]


to damage to the self-image-so called

narcissistic injury-that arrests development

in one of two ways: persistent infantile

grandiose fantasies or failure to internalize

the idealized image of the parent. Either

problem prevents the development of adult

identity and morality. Akhtar (1999), for

example, proposed that political experience,

such as the humiliation of subordination,

might produce an adult narcissistic injury

that might reawaken the psychological trait

of infantile narcissism. The result might be a

pathological exaltation of self (the genesis of

the leader), the abandonment of

independence to merge with the archaic

omnipotent figure (the genesis of the

follower), or a combination of these

impulses, as seen in the egotistical yearning

for glory under the mask of selflessness.

Both of these forms of infantile retreat are

hypothesized to mobilize the expression of

the desire to destroy the source of the injury

(i.e., narcissistic rage). This rage is, in

essence, rage against the damaged self,

projected onto the target of the terrorist's

animus, as if the target were the source of

the intolerable feelings the terrorist has

about himself (Akhtar 1999). The theory of

terrorist narcissism fits with empirical

observations of el Sarraj (2002) that

terrorists, far from being the aggressive

psychopaths of public imagination, are often

timid, emotionally damaged adolescents-

those who have suffered ego injuries such as

parental rejection that delay or prevent full

achievement of adult identity -who seem to

be in search of affiliation and meaning. In

this respect, according to el Sarraj

narcissism and identity theory overlap.

Sageman (2004) however argues that the

conclusions regarding narcissism are

impressionistic, not empirical. As a result, it

remains undetermined whether the

prevalence of narcissistic traits among

terrorists exceeds the prevalence in the

general population. Although the narcissim

theory seems plausible in explaining the

genesis of terror behavior there is still need

to conduct scientific studies on this.

However, it is worth noting that persons

who have been neglected at a tender age

may turn to terrorism.

Paranoia Theory

Post (2004) offers a comprehensive,

psychoanalytically based formulation of

terrorist behaviors-one that includes an

explanation for the terrorist's capacity for

murder: echoing Kohut (1978), he posits

that the salient feature of terrorist

psychology is projection, an infantile

defense that assigns intolerable internal

feelings to an external object when an

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individual who has grown up with a

damaged self-concept idealizes the good self

and splits out the bad self. While not overtly

psychotic, the paranoid position nonetheless

inflames the terrorist with suspicions that

justify bloody acts of "self-defense" against

his victims: "the zeal of the torturer, the

alacrity of the killer, represents his

eagerness to destroy the devalued and

disowned part of the self". Post's paranoia

theory offers a developmental model that

explains not only why only a minority of

individuals with political grievances turns to

terrorism but also why terrorists kill those

who do not appear to constitute an imminent

threat.

A scientifically weak but plausible criticism

of the paranoia theory is provided by

Sageman's (2004) finding that nine of ten

Muslim terrorist biographies revealed no

evidence of paranoia. Yet the most

important criticism of such psychoanalytical

theories is that it is impossible to test any

hypothesis that attributes covert adult

psychodynamic forces to covert

psychosexual processes postulated to have

occurred decades before, in infancy.

Paranoia theory, like narcissism theory,

remains an intriguing albeit impressionistic

psychoanalytic interpretation that might,

after controlled research using validated

measures of paranoia, someday be shown to

explain some instances of this very

heterogeneous adult behavior.

Humiliation-Revenge Theory

Humiliation and the consequent internal

pressure for revenge-is another

psychological factor that has been

hypothesized to drive terrorist violence

(Juergensmeyer 2000). Revenge for

humiliation by an oppressor is, in fact, an

ancient cultural tradition with direct links to

the current violence in the Middle East. The

oppression of the early Christians, embodied

in the image of Christ on the cross, was part

of the inspiration for the apocalyptic

movement in Christianity that culminated in

the First Crusade (Armstrong 2001). A cycle

of oppression and humiliation, followed by

violent action in the name of liberation,

characterizes the subsequent history of the

Middle East. Palestinian psychiatrist el

Sarraj (2002) has specifically observed that

humiliation is an important factor

motivating young suicide bombers. Dr.

Abdul Aziz Rantisi, the late political leader

of Hamas, confirmed this notion in a

statement published three years before his

death via targeted killing by the Israeli

Defense Forces: "To die in this way is better

than to die daily in frustration and

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humiliation" (Juergensmeyer 2000). Several

other authorities also either propose that

humiliation, by parents in early childhood or

by political oppressors later in life, can

provoke terrorism, but no quantitative

research has yet explored this hypothesis

(Stern, 2003). Whether considered from the

psychoanalytic point of view as an

inevitable dynamic consequence of

narcissistic injury or from the

nonpsychoanalytic point of view as a painful

social stressor, humiliation seems plausible

as the root of an urge to retaliate against

political entities that are perceived to be

responsible. The concept that feelings of

humiliation or being taken advantage of

gives rise to a passion for revenge is very

familiar in forensic psychiatry and

criminology and probably contributes to

many nonpolitical murders (Schlesinger

2000; Meloy 2001). Indeed, revenge is an

emotion that is probably deeply rooted in the

adaptive instinct to punish transgressors who

violate the contracts of social species; hence,

it is a motivator that often serves not only

the goals of a vengeful individual but also

the goals of his group. In this sense, revenge

is often prosocial and sometimes-if the

vengeance taker stands to suffer and his

group to gain-even altruistic. In a recent

study combining psychological with

functional neuroimaging studies in humans,

de Quervain et al. (2004) showed that

individuals punish social transgressors even

when it is quite costly to the punisher, and

they reported evidence that this altruistic

behavior was driven by deep subcortical

brain activity that may have overruled the

more rational cortex. Knutson (2004)

observes that while this science intriguingly

helps to explain how revenge might

motivate terrorists and perhaps governments

to commit murderous behaviors without

likely strategic benefits, no questionnaire

data or measurements of subjective

humiliation, desire for revenge, or emotional

satisfaction after retribution in terrorists or

ex-terrorists have yet been published. This

plausible theory awaits better substantiation.

TERRORISTS PERSONAL

EXPERIENCE OF VICTIMIZATION

According to the House of Commons Report

(2006), there is some evidence of abuse,

victimization or other trauma in early life of

some of the terrorists, but in others their

upbringing has been stable and loving.

Focusing on Jermaine Lindsay and Osama

bin Laden it is possible to decipher how

feelings of victimization may probably

cause a person to turn to terrorism.

[Muchemi, 2017]


Jermaine Lindsay

Jermaine Lindsay was one of the suicide

bombers in the Bombings in London on 7th

July 2005 (House of Commons Report,

2006). He was born in Jamaica on 23

September 1985. His mother was 19 years at

the time. His natural father remained in

Jamaica and appears to have played little

role in Lindsay’s subsequent life. His

mother moved to Huddersfield with another

man when Lindsay was still young. This

first stepfather is described as having been

harsh to Lindsay. The relationship between

his mother and his first step father broke up

in 1990. Eventually she married another

man. Lindsay is said to have been closer to

his second stepfather who stayed with the

family until 2000. He had two younger

stepsisters. (House of Commons Report of

the official account of the bombings in

London on 7th July 2005. 2006).

In 2002, his mother moved to the US to live

with another man, leaving Lindsay alone at

the family home in Huddersfield. The report

indicates that the moving of his mother to

the US is described as a traumatic

experience for Lindsay, for which he was ill

equipped. He left school, and lived on

benefit, doing what is described as

occasional odd jobs for example selling

mobile phones and Islamic books. These

traumatic events of Lindsay at a tender age

including harshness from his step father, the

departure of his mother and the series of

new marriage setups, may be seen as initial

factors of Lindsay’s feelings of being

victimized or being in an unfair world.

Hence he may have developed a world view

of being in an unfair world where he

continuously felt the need to liberate

himself. This may have created a paranoia

kind of personality.

Borum’s (2004) agrees that certain life

experiences tend to be commonly found

among terrorists noting that, histories of

childhood abuse and trauma appear to be

widespread. In addition, themes of perceived

injustice and humiliation often are

prominent in terrorist biographies and

personal histories. He argues that none of

these contributes much to a causal

explanation of terrorism, but may be seen as

markers of vulnerability, as possible sources

of motivation, or as mechanisms for

acquiring or hardening one’s militant

ideology.

Akhtar (1999), in agreement to this theory,

indicates that evidence does exist that most

major players in a terrorist organization are

themselves, deeply traumatized individuals.

[Muchemi, 2017]


As children, they may have suffered chronic

physical abuse, and profound emotional

humiliation. Hence, they grew up

mistrusting others, loathing passivity, and

dreading reoccurrence of a violation of their

psychophysical boundaries. The nature and

strength of the evidence to which she refers,

however, is less clear.

Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden was involved in the

planning and bombing of World Trade

Center on September 9, 2011, killing 3000

Americans. He was born on March 10, 1957

in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden’s

mother, Hamida, is said to be from

Damascus, Syria and was reputedly a great

beauty in her youth. The father to bin Laden

was Muhammad bin Laden, a

businessperson who operated a multibillion-

construction company (Bergen 2006).

Post (2004) in his study reports, that

Osama’s mother was the least favorite of

Muhammad bin Laden’s wives because of

her free and independent spirit. Reportedly,

because Hamida was independent, she

clashed with her husband who probably

expected women to obey orders without

question. As a consequence according to

Post (2004), as Osama was born, Hamida

was ostracized by the family and nicknamed

“al Abeda which means “the slave”. Since

Osama was her only son, he too was

nicknamed, ibn al Abeda which means son

of the slave (Schneider & Post 2003). Post

states further reports that unlike the other

bin Laden children who had natural allies in

their immediate circle of siblings, Osama

and his mother had no such natural allies in

the family and, as a consequence, there may

have been a defensive alliance between

Osama and his mother against the larger

family which treated the “the slave and the

son of the slave” with contempt. This

familial exclusion was perhaps the basis of

Osama Bin Laden’s later estrangement from

his family. There is hence an indication of

Osama’s rejection from a very early stage in

his life. Reports are inconsistent as to how

much of a presence Hamida was in her son’s

life during his early developmental years,

but it is clear that Mohammed bin Laden

divorced Hamida prior to his death in 1967,

when Osama bin Laden was 10 years old

which can be seen as a loss that came too

early in his life when he needed a father

figure most especially as a son in the

Muslim community or when he was young

and still struggling to form or construct his

own identity amidst a number of challenges.

According to Post (2004), this deficiency in

a self identity may have arguably led bin

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Laden to get flattered by Azzam’s (his

mentor) attention when he was twenty-two

years of age. Bin Laden’s unsatisfied need

for intimacy with his dad hence found the

perfect outlet in Azzam.

Bergen (2006) reports that contact between

bin Laden and his father was intermittent

and happened only on formal occasions.

Osama bin Laden and his college friend

Jamal Khalifa are said to have been

polygamous marrying and divorcing. It is

argued that they had a lot of wives and

sometimes they did not give equal justice to

them all, a trait they may have copied from

their parents (Bergen 2006).

Although many reports imply that bin Laden

held his father in high regard, one can

surmise from this statement that on some

level Osama felt his mother was treated

unjustly. But, that did not stop bin Laden

from following in his father’s polygamous

footsteps. The idea of marrying and treating

his wives unjustly may have been a sign of

Osama continuous efforts to achieve justice

for his mother’s mistreatment.

Accordingly, at age ten, Osama bin Laden

contended with sibling rivalry, anger over

his father’s death, lack of intimacy with his

primary caretakers, anger over his mother’s

treatment, and disillusionment over Israel’s

crushing defeat of Egypt. Arguably, all

aspects of Osama bin Laden’s world toppled

in a short span of time and how that

manifested in his consciousness is reflected

in his actions as a man. Robins and Post

(1997) would argue bin Laden projected his

anger outward into the environment. In their

words, projection is the “tendency of people

who are small or frightened to attribute

exaggerated size and power to their

enemies” (Robins and Post (1997). From

this perspective, bin Laden’s initial response

was to cultivate a pious persona to elevate

himself above those around him. This

behavior would perhaps serve him well in

carrying on his life project of self-

protection. Using the same religious

platform later, he made himself God and

condemned 3,000 innocent Americans to

death by bombing the World Trade Center

three decades later. Three decades seems

like a long time to hold a grudge, but that act

successfully put Osama bin Laden at the

center of the universe, exactly where he

wanted to be. These facts support Robins

and Post’s (1997) theory about the

debilitating effects of projection, loss of

autonomy, and delusional thinking. (Steiner,

2012).

In the life stories of Jermaine Lindsay and

Osama bin Laden we find strong evidences

[Muchemi, 2017]


to support the hypothesis that when people

harbor feelings of real or imagined

victimization they are likely to easily get

engaged into terror activities. In Kenya, too

there could be several narratives of

victimization that may have led people to

engage in terror activities. The following

section focuses on experiences of

victimization in Kenya.

A FOCUS ON EXPERIENCES OF

VICTIMIZATION IN KENYA

Botha (2014) reports that Muslim youth

have joined extremist groups as a counter-

reaction to what they see as government-

imposed ‘collective punishment’ driven by

the misguided perception that all Somali and

Kenyan-Somali nationals are potential

terrorists. Additionally, as long as Kenyan

citizens exclusively identify with an ethnic/

religious identity that is perceived to be

under threat, radicalization will increase.

The increasing acceptance of al-Qaeda and

al-Shabaab’s philosophy in traditional

African communities has allowed al-

Shabaab in particular to spread throughout

the broader region, including Kenya. The

most dramatic manifestation of the group’s

abilities came when it successfully executed

attacks on 21 September 2013 in Nairobi,

Westgate shopping mall. Al-Shabaab has

also been implicated in smaller attacks in

which Kenyan nationals were directly

involved in recruiting their fellow nationals

to join organisation’s ranks. Initially, after

being radicalised, these individuals left

Kenya to fight in Somalia. This trend

gradually changed in that locally

marginalised, radicalised and recruited

individuals started being used to execute

attacks in Kenya. Turning against their

fellow citizens in this way means that these

radicalized individuals are identifying with

something other than being Kenyan (Botha,

2014). The question that comes to affore is:-

Are there acts in the lives of some Kenyans

that makes them feel victimized, hence

making them vulnerable/susceptible to

engaging in terror behaviours?

On 28th November 2002 two suicide

bombers targeted the Israel-owned Paradise

Hotel in Mombasa. All the suspects

involved in this attack are said to have been

Kenyan nationals. Another Kenyan national

suspect detonated a hand grenade on 1st

August 2003, killing himself and a police

officer to avoid arrest.

Recently according to the African Union

(2015), it has been observed that a number

of youths are choosing to join terror

movement. For example, Elgiva Bwire

[Muchemi, 2017]


Oliacha, who was arrested after the two

grenade attacks on 17 and 24th October

2011. He was found with six guns, 13

grenades and hundreds of rounds of

ammunition in his house. He was sentenced

to life imprisonment after pleading guilty.

According to his mother , he was brought up

in a strict Catholic family in Busia. This

copies Osama’s upbringing in strict Islamic

doctrine (African Union, 2015).

Other non-Somali Kenyan nationals said to

be involved with al-Shabaab activities

include Juma Ayub Otit Were, Suleiman

Irungu Mwangi, Mohammed Muriithi and

Ramadan Osao. Titus Nyabiswa converted

to Islam and was later arrested for being in

possession of firearms and hand grenades

(African Union, 2015).

On 2nd April 2015, gunmen attacked the

Garissa university college. The attack left

142 students, 3 police officers and 3 soldiers

dead, while 78 civilians were injured.

Mohamed Mohamud was identified as the

mastermind behind the attack. Mohamud is

a Kenyan national and an ethnic Somali. He

was a teacher and then headmaster of a

madrassa in Garissa, who later became

radicalised and crossed the porous border

into southern Somalia (African Union,

2015).Further the themes of frustration,

punishment, inequality, historical injustices

and other forms of victimization that may

make people feel alienated and hence in

need of revenge always arise in scenarios

where Kenyan locals engage in terror

activities. This could have generated

feelings of victimization that may have lead

some people to seek revenge, eventually

graduating into terrorists (African Union,

2015).

There is therefore a greater need to fund

empirical studies on the profiles of terrorists

in Kenya with an aim of establishing

whether they suffer feelings of victimization

of any form.

Botha’s (2014) study further reveals that the

process of becoming a terrorist or being

radicalized in Kenya is motivated by loss of

parents at a tender age when the youth

cannot bear the pain of a tragedy like that of

losing a parent. Additionally, the themes of

frustration and a sense of oppression

features prominently in his research on

radicalization of youths in Kenya.

Although a number of authors (Mwakimako

and Willis, 2009, Victoroff, 2005) argue that

victimization may not fully explain the

causes of terrorism, taken together, the

findings in this review regarding childhood

trauma and adult injustice and humiliation

[Muchemi, 2017]


can be viewed as a major factor in a

person’s choice to involving himself/herself

in terrorist activities. Hence, providing some

accuracy into some of the theories that favor

this argument.

As Mwakimako and Willis (2009) note,

some people in the Muslim community in

Kenya harbor the feeling that to be a Muslim

in Kenya is to be marginalized. The

“victimization narrative” that creates a sense

of subordination and subjugation, in Kenya

and sometimes globally, could sometimes

act as a driver to radicalization among

Kenyan Muslims. At the same time, Kenyan

Muslims still see themselves as Kenyan

citizens and active participants in the state.

As one Muslim leader in Lamu explained, “I

am persevering to be a Kenyan.” Their

position is also changing, not least because

of the influence of their vote during

elections. Furthermore, their status as a

marginalized and suspect community is also

helping them attract aid, given the eagerness

of Western governments to fund counter-

radicalization activities.

In conclusion, Horgan (2005) observes that

it might be useful to identify predisposing

risk factors for involvement in terrorism as a

prelude to some form of risk assessment for

prediction of involvement, and gives factors

that can be included as risk factors. These

factors may include the following:

1. The presence of some emotional

vulnerability, in terms of feelings of

anger, alienation (often synonymous

with feelings of being culturally

uprooted or displaced and a longing for a

sense of community), and

disenfranchisement. For example, some

alienated young British Muslims,

looking for guidance and leadership that

they do not get from mosque leaders

because of a perception that the leaders

are too old, too conservative, and out of

touch with their world, may turn

elsewhere for guidance and clarity.

2. Dissatisfaction with their current

activity, whether it be political or social

protest, and the perception that

conventional political activity just does

not work or produce results. A related

issue here is that violent radicals view

terrorism as absolutely necessary. For

example, in a video message before

blowing up himself and six others in

London, Mohammad Sidique Khan

employed the language of "war" in

urging British Muslims to oppose the

British government. The view is that

terrorism is a necessary, defensive, and,

[Muchemi, 2017]


above all, urgent activity against an

offensive enemy perceived as bent on

humiliating and subjugating its victims.

Khan was the youngest of six and he

grew up in Beeston, a deprived,

ethnically mixed area of Leeds. He

seemed to have worked a lot with people

who had been oppressed.

3. Identification with victims - either real,

in terms of personal victimization (e.g.,

by the military or police) or less

tangible. For European Muslims who

become involved in violent jihad, this

identification is with Palestinian victims

of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,

victims in Iraq, or the conflict in

Kashmir. In Khans video testimony, he

blamed his behavior on the actions of the

United States and United Kingdom:

"bombing, gassing, imprisonment and

torture of my people," identifying with

the suffering of Muslims around the

world even though he came from

Yorkshire, in northern England.

4. Crucially, the person has to believe that

engaging in violence against the state or

its symbols is not inherently immoral.

This belief, while it may be fine-tuned

by a religious figure, is usually held by

the time the person has decided to

become involved to the point of

engaging in terrorism.

5. Also important is a sense of reward that

the recruit has about what "being in this

movement" represents. All suicide

bombers, across the world, have one

thing in common. They come to believe

that they will achieve more in death than

they ever could in life, a very powerful

motivating factor not only in initial

recruitment but also in terms of

sustaining that person s commitment to

the movement once a member. In

practical terms, involvement might result

in heightened status, respect, or authority

within the immediate peer group, the

broader radical movement, and (at least

as imagined by the recruit) the wider

Muslim community. The clearest answer

to why someone wants to become

involved in a suicidal mission is that the

person seeks the kind of martyrdom and

accompanying rewards on display as

when violent radical Web sites hailed the

7/7 bombers as heroic martyrs and

exalted them as almost pop stars.

6. Finally, kinship or other social ties to

those experiencing similar issues, or

already involved, are crucial (Sageman

2004).

[Muchemi, 2017]


CONCLUSIONS

As observed, certain life experiences tend to

be commonly found among terrorists.

Histories of childhood abuse and trauma

appear to be widespread. In addition, themes

of perceived injustice and humiliation often

are prominent in terrorist biographies and

personal histories. None of these has been

found to contribute much to a causal

explanation of terrorism by empirical

studies, however, these factors may be seen

as markers of vulnerability, as possible

sources of motivation, or as mechanisms for

acquiring or hardening one’s militant

ideology (Borum, 2004). Hence there is

need to explore these factors further with an

aim of developing policies that are likely to

enhance equity and justice. This may

prevent persons that are likely to be

compelled by such factors from choosing the

terrorist option.

1. Since terrorism is a challenge

specifically in Kenya and in the whole

world experts in different disciplines

including psychologists should be well

funded commensurate with the

magnitude of the threat to conduct

serious scholarly work on terrorists

behavior and the most appropriate

methods of dealing with terrorism so as

to realize positive results

2. Further, research should be conducted on

the impact that injustices, both historical

and ongoing at society level, political

level and parenting injustices has on

young people’s tendencies to join

terrorism groups.

3. As has been observed the attempts to

profile terrorists based on certain

identified psychological traits have been

met with a lot of challenges. Scholarly

efforts to identify these psychological

traits should continue. However, as has

been observed it seems that there is a

gradual sense of progression into

becoming a terrorist. Hence, it is rather

practical to consider understanding what

makes people turn into terrorists, for

example, the feelings of personal

victimization in life. Assuming that

every human being has a potential for

aggressiveness what other environmental

factors are likely to increase this

aggressiveness to the level where a

person’s actions are labeled as terrorism.

4. Incorporating sensitizations on terrorism

for school going children should be

considered. This would help educate

[Muchemi, 2017]


them who terrorists are and how to deal

with injustices without resulting into

terrorism.

5. With the current phenomenon of youth

explosion in Kenya and in the world at

large, economic hope and a sense of

success should be instilled in school

going children in an effort to reduce the

lure of becoming terrorists. This may

minimize the sense of being victimized

that exists in some communities and

individuals and inculcate the spirit of

healthy competition.

6. The findings by the reconciliation

commission should be looked into with

an aim of conducting debriefings that

would help such communities to

normalize and live healthy lives again

where they feel part of the governing

system.

RECOMMENDATIONS

From this review, the following

recommendations are necessary for Kenya

As Kenya’s law enforcement and

intelligence entities continue to mitigate,

deter and serve as a reactive force to

terrorists, it is important that the government

work towards applying preventive measures,

which will persuade, discourage and prevent

its population from being lured into terror

activities. For example, reconciliatory

procedures to address real or perceived

injustices committed to individuals and

groups of people should be considered.

Efforts should be made to make politics and

hence sharing of resources all-inclusive.

This will make persons or groups of people

who feel alienated to have a sense of being

included into politics, economy and

everyday life activities. Hence, the

philosophy/strategy of Global War on Terror

be replaced with the philosophy of “winning

the hearts and minds of target populations”

as proposed by Prestholdt (2011). Such a

philosophy should be propagated so that

target populations feel part and parcel of

national development and sharing of

national resources and power.

This article is also in support of Omer

Ta¸Spinar (2009) argument that the best way

to deal with terrorism is perhaps to drop the

notion of a ‘war against terror’ in favor of a

‘strategic campaign against radicalism.’ The

campaigns should focus on human

development as suggested by Omer

Ta¸Spinar (2009). Kenya should adopt

‘fighting radicalism with human

development’ approaches as the public

narrative and long-term objective for a

smarter effort at strategic counter-terrorism.

[Muchemi, 2017]


Finally, there seems to be very little

empirical research findings on the process of

radicalization and psychology of terrorism.

Much of the literature reviewed goes far

before the year 2000. There is therefore,

need to conduct researches on terrorists

behavior more so in Kenya, using people

who practice terrorism as the subjects.

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