Willis Okumu

Institute for Security Studies | ISS · ENACT

Lake Victoria in East Africa is a convergence point for a range of environmental crimes perpetrated by actors who exploit the lake for profit. Fishermen use the water mass not only to legally draw their livelihood but also to profit from overexploitation of the environment through practices such as illegal fishing and sand harvesting. Lack of a uni...

This study delves into the typologies, networks and actors that facilitate transnational organised crimes and the challenges these pose in integrated border management within Lake Victoria ports in the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya

There are an estimated 3.2 million women who inject drugs (WUD) globally, constituting 20% of all people who inject drugs. Notwithstanding the significant proportion of female drug users (FDUs) in Kenya, anecdotal reports from harm reduction and drug rehabilitation facilities have continued to record low utilization rates of the existing support se...

This study looks at the links between cattle rustling in East Africa's Karamoja Cluster and the flow of illicit arms into this ungoverned space. It looks at the actors involved in the illicit arms trade, the sources of the weapons, and the need for responses other than civilian disarmament exercises, which so far have been unsuccessful.

There is growing evidence of the significant impacts of COVID-19 and government responses for those who experience human trafficking and modern slavery (HTMS). There is less known about experiences of service-providers, effects on international partnerships, and the implications of funder responses. This article uses the prism of safeguarding to ex...

Study delves into the networks that facilitate the illegal harvesting and sale of the endangered sandalwood tree from Kenya. It looks into the state and none-state actors that facilitate the entry of sandalwood traffickers into community forests in Northern Kenya and the routes that harvested sandalwood is moved through from Northern Kenya to Toror...

This article explains the Baragoi Massacre that occurred in 2012 in Northern Kenya. It explains the progression of the conflict between the Samburu and Turkana communities to an all-out conflict which claimed the lives of 42 police officers. In the analysis, it attributes the progression from a cattle raid to all-out violence to the entry of extern...

Northern Kenya is popularly dubbed as an ‘ungoverned space’ referring to a social, economic, or political arena where the state does not exercise effective authority. Here, cattle raids and highway banditry attacks have become rather standardized. This ineffective or limited state presence and authority gives rise to alternative structures of autho...

In the last decade, the Kenyan state, reacting mainly to the 2007/2008 post-election violence and cases of intergroup conflicts, created local peace committees and conferred on them the rights to address specific disputes and prevent conflicts at the local level. Local peace committees are (superficially) modelled after social institutions deemed t...

In the last decade, the Kenyan state, reacting mainly to the 2007/2008 post-election violence and cases of intergroup conflicts, created local peace committees and conferred on them the rights to address specific disputes and prevent conflicts at the local level. Local peace committees are (superficially) modelled after social institutions deemed t...

This paper argues that livestock raids and pastoralists’ competition over water and pastures in north-western Kenya are manifestations of local ethnic political contests and rivalries. The culture of raiding among the Samburu, Turkana, Pokot, Borana, Gabra and Rendille communities has changed over the last 40 years. Whereas elders were once the gat...

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to trace and evaluate student politics at the University of Nairobi by analyzing the effectiveness of the student body; Students’ Organization of the University of Nairobi (herein known and referred to as SONU). This paper looks into institutional weaknesses, corruption, gender insensitivity, the role of University Adminis...