Paper short abstract:

In Kenya there is a section of independent Muslim clerics espousing Islamists views characterized with intolerant and exclusivist messages.

Paper long abstract:

Abstract

Kenya is witnessing a pronounced Muslim activism presence in the country's public sphere, which could be attributed to numerous factors, but significantly to political liberalization of the early 1990s. Due to the democratic freedom, it encouraged the emergence of a section of Muslim clerics advocating for Islam as a relevant political ideology to both the minority Muslims and the general Kenya's population. This group of Muslim clerics espouses Islamist view of the world, and like other Islamists in the world, their key call is the insistence of the establishment of an Islamic state governed by sharia. The article seeks to contribute to the larger debate on Islamism within the Kenyan context. Though some commentators are pessimistic of the presence of Islamism in Kenya, I endeavor to demonstrate its existence in the country. I conceptualize Islamism in Kenya in the form of individual Muslim clerics who reject secularism, democracy and the nation-state. In this respect, I employ Sheikh Aboud Rogo's sermons and statements as a representation of Islamism in Kenya. Through his hateful and inciting orations that included issuing fatwas against the government, praising attacks on churches as acceptable in Islam, and completely disregarding mutual religious co-existence, indicated the existence of an extreme form of Islamism among sections of Muslims in Kenya.

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