Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Al-Shabaab's Sex Workers in Kenya

The War on the Rocks blog posted on 14 August 2018 a piece titled "Al-Shabaab's Mata Hari Network" by Katharine Petrich, a PhD candidate at Northeastern University.

The author looks at the use of prostitutes in Nairobi, Kenya, by al-Shabaab for purposes of collecting intelligence from Kenyan government and law enforcement officials about the war in Somalia, where Kenyan soldiers are deployed. The al-Shabaab-affiliated sex workers are independent contractors who trade in sex first and information second. Al-Shabaab's strong policy against prostitution and adultery in Somalia give way to the pragmatic need for information by aiding and abetting the practice in Kenya.