Security Governance in East Africa

Book excerpt: This collection of cases from East Africa, contributed largely by locally-based authors, explores the increasing security governance phenomenon in the region: that is, the mix of state and non-state actors, including private entities, volunteer auxiliaries, homegrown vigilantes and gangs, and the relationship between police and communities. Local dynamics brought by globalization, liberalization, the new scramble for resource wealth, inequality, and international terrorism are observed in detail, superimposed upon the well-known development challenges, ethnopolitical divides, and patterns of government and security provision which continue to reflect their colonial past. This book raises both practical and theoretical ethical dilemmas of the increasing fragmentation of security functions within Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan, mainland Tanzania, and Zanzibar. It is a vital contribution to the “non-state,” “plural policing” debates and is of both local and global relevance.