Context

The Kenyan coastal region is affected by violent, often religious-based, extremism. Kenya has suffered catastrophic retaliatory attacks by Al-Shabaab, while countries such as Somaliland and Tanzania, where Al-Shabaab operates and where peace is closely linked to local political dynamics, continue to face considerable risk. According to the typology of the UN’s Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) strategy, Kenya is classified as a “spillover” country in the violent extremism context.

There are a range of complex local conflict drivers (historical grievances, economic competition, and political marginalization/exclusion), which get caught up in the extremist threat; and supra national issues, both nationally (with groups such as al-Shabaab) and global (e.g. al-Qa`ida, signs of affiliation with Daesh, and liaison with Boko Haram). However the mental health of vulnerable communities has received inadequate attention yet it is emerging as a significant factor in cases of Violent Extremism (VE).

There are types of traumatic experiences that impact work in Kenya.

• On-going and structurally induced trauma: the persistent negative effects of socio-economic and political factors at individual and community level. Institutions perpetuate structural violence through exclusion, marginalization and power politics.

• Societal and collective trauma: trauma that affects a mass of people. The collective pain finds expression in the manner in which political processes are designed and decisions made.

• Participation-induced trauma/trauma of the perpetrator: caused by being an active participant in causing trauma to others, whether within the law or tradition or outside it. Healing for such perpetrators can be difficult since they are often deliberately isolated during healing and reconnection processes.

• Historical trauma transferred through generations: the entrenchment and politicisation of aggressor/victim narratives over generations and across geographic boundaries resulting in the use of politics as an arena for settling historic scores.

• Secondary Trauma/Trauma of the witness: including peace workers, journalists, and populations that live through periods of protracted conflict.

Cultural

Culturally there is a deep connection between individual and community healing. Collective and intergenerational trauma has developed a cultural of violence within the Kenyan contex. Violence, whether direct or structural, is a human phenomenon. As such, it poses for human beings not only a physical or existential problem but also a problem of meaning. Both types of direct and structural violence, are justified or legitimated in one form or another. This occurs in the arena of culture, in the realm of beliefs, attitudes, and symbols. It would be erroneous to say culture is the root cause of violence. Yet, neither direct nor structural violence can go on for long without at least some support from culture. In any given culture, the justification or legitimation of violence can come from a variety of directions — most significantly from religion, ideology, and cosmology, but also from the arts and sciences.

We have learned because most images that people see today come from newspapers and social media. Positive images for Kenya are not the norm. Very little focuses on what is healing within the culture. Almost everything that people see about themselves and their context is about violence, corruption, and pain. COVID19 has not helped change this narrative. Thus showing that there is already many positive and healthy practices that happen everyday in society is an important part of a strenth-based, healing-centered approach.

Some of the visual images are violent. The community members who are a part of the adaptation process note such images are a part of the truth-telling process of a violent society. They feel that including images that are uncomfortable is important as it documents the harsh realities of people's lived experience. They note that such images are not re-traumaizing but instead are an important part of their healing process. They insist on difficult images in order to not only engage in individual healing but also a more collective healing as well.