Paper short abstract:

This paper examines dynamics driving the Ansari Sunna and MRC to prominence. Using oral interviews with members to analyse the thinking behind events involving them, discard monolithic, totalising narratives to explain the extent to which Islamist ideology account for events in the coast of Kenya.

Paper long abstract:

The Ansari Sunna and the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) groups in the Coast of Kenya are infamous because, they were founded by indigenous coastal inhabitants, led by enigmatic personalities. Within a short period of their existence both have created local networks of influence across the coast of Kenya and successfully deploy discursive strategies to address the ‘daily life contexts’ of their sympathisers and are able to activate large masses as well as a complex network of individuals and activities. Stories of their emergence are dominated by grievances, discrimination against coastal communities, radicalization, secession demands, police brutality, forced disappearances, abductions, violence and extremism. Telling the story of coastal politics through the MRC and Ansar Sunna is to narrate a tale of how to write histories of Islamist thinking in rural settings, a story that is told here by investigating the nature of groups’ dynamics and avoiding all too common generalizations. This paper examines the local dynamics of Ansari Sunna and MRC groups to prominence, including contexts of claims of marginalization and broader coastal grievances. In understanding the current status of religious and political developments in the Coast of Kenya, the MRC and the Ansar Sunna are relevant and instructive case studies. Based on oral interviews with participants and members of the groups one is able to analyse the thinking behind events involving members of these groups and discard the monolithic and totalising narratives used to explain the extent to which Islamist ideology is present in events in the coast of Kenya.