Integrationism vs. rejectionism: revisiting the history of Islamist activism in coastal Kenya

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kenya’s coastal region saw the rise of Islamist activism(s). Revisiting this rise, this article traces the history of two contrasting politico-religious groups seeking to address the historical marginalisation of Kenyan Muslim communities: the Mombasa-based Islamic Party of Kenya (IPK) and the southern coastal Ansar Sunnah movement. While the IPK accepted the Kenyan nation-state and sought to empower Kenya’s Muslim minority via the electoral process, the ‘Ansaris’ promoted a rejectionist agenda fundamentally opposed to democracy and the conventional state. Re-investigating the origins and the evolution of these two antithetical projects, our article provides two fieldwork-based contributions, drawing on key informant interviews. First, we tackle several historiographically unsettled questions concerning the biographies of prominent politico-religious entrepreneurs like Khalid Balala and Abdulaziz Rimo. Second, we provide a counterpoint to a growing body of literature focussing on the gradual emergence of a coastal jihadist network. While not denying the significance of this network, we show that the local rise of jihadism has been accompanied by equally important processes of moderation away from violence and exclusivism. Overall, our article therefore underlines the multi-facetted and non-linear dynamics of Islamist activism in coastal Kenya and the wider East African Region.