ABSTRACT
Gangs in urban Kenya are predominantly explored through the lens of political and criminal violence, whereas other factors like work, gender and belonging are often overlooked. This chapter explores why young men become members of gangs, how gang membership becomes crucial in their struggle for survival and why it is so difficult for them to leave a gang, even though many are trying to. Accordingly, I focus on the multiple meanings of gangs in the everyday practices of (mostly) young men and analyze these meanings in relation to wider cultural, political and economic frameworks and developments.
In particular, I look at the daily struggles of young ghetto men who face multiple marginalities in their attempts to become ‘senior men’ and how this relates to membership of working gangs (i.e. gangs involved in particular types of work such as selling heroin, brokering stolen goods or distilling and distributing illegal alcohol). My aim is to move away from the current association of gangs with violence and ethnic politics – that is, gang members as ‘thugs for hire.’ I argue that work is at least as important to grasp processes of gang formation, especially if one wants to understand the gangs from the young men’s own perspective. This viewpoint is lacking in much of the literature on Kenyan gangs in particular and, indeed, gangs in general. Gangs in Kenyan ghettos are vital to many young men from the ghetto, because they offer work and, as such, a chance to realise respectable masculinities in an environment that is increasingly dominated by women. In this sense, gangs can even be instrumental in realising community development. However, there are enormous barriers in the ghetto environment to achieving masculinities and development. This explains why the gangs under consideration here are so fluid in their existence and why membership is always fraught with ambiguities.
