by Jacob Rasmussen

This DIIS Working Paper explores the role of Somali militants and the Kenyan army, bureaucrats, politicians, businessmen and truck drivers in the lucrative but dangerous smuggling of sugar between Somalia and Kenya. Jacob Rasmussen, an anthropologist and Associate Professor at Roskilde University, highlights the many vested interests in sugar smuggling in northern Kenya. Sugar smuggling is a ‘sweet secret’ that is publicly known in Kenya, but cannot openly be talked about. It is part of illicit trade networks that not only span the Horn of Africa region, but go hand in hand with state formation dynamics in Kenya. This DIIS Working Paper is part of the GOVSEA PAPER SERIES (Governing Economic Hubs and Flows in Somali East Africa).