Aleya Kassam, one of the founders of Wau Eats in Nairobi, said her family has enjoyed making samosas for generations. As they experiment with different fillings, Americans living in Kenya are even ordering apple pie samosas for Thanksgiving.
While a lot of attention has been paid to the ideological underpinnings of extremist groups like al-Shabab, the new attack in Nairobi shows how increasingly local factors like poverty are driving the growth of extremism in East Africa.
Tanzania was one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to embrace family planning. But current president John Magufuli made headlines when he said he does “not see any need for birth control,” asserting that population growth is actually an economic boon to the East African nation.