Winning Hearts and Minds?; Examining the Relationship Between Aid and Security in Kenya

In Africa, the United States (US) military since 9/11 has become increasingly involved in providing humanitarian and development assistance; the Pentagon controls over 20% of US assistance to Africa. This trend is being consolidated in the new US Command for Africa – AFRICOM – that advances a role for the US military in Africa’s development. One of the models for the new command has been the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) which, since 2003, has been providing humanitarian and development assistance to “win hearts and minds” in Muslim communities in the Horn of Africa as part of a regional counterterrorism and stabilization strategy. Examining the experience of CJTFHOA in northeastern Kenya and along the Kenyan coast, this study assesses the effectiveness of the US military’s use of “soft power” in addressing the security challenges of the US and its allies in the region.