Terrorism is one of the biggest security concerns in Kenya. Many lives have been lost and property worth millions destroyed during terror attacks. These terror attacks have been carried out by the Al Qaeda linked group Al Shabaab. The attacks have happened in Nairobi, the coastal counties of Mombasa, Lamu, Kilifi and Kwale. However, majority of the attacks have happened in Mandera, Wajir and Garissa counties representing about 70% of the incidents. Garissa county has been the most affected county with one of the major attacks being the attack on Garissa University that resulted in the death of 149 people. Counter terrorism and antiterrorism measures have been taken by the government to fight the threat of insurgency. The decisions made on the measures taken to mitigate and prevent terrorist attacks made based on information. This research project aimed at profiling the county of Garissa into different zones based on the risk of terrorism using secondary data representing different factors of risk. Statistical analysis on the incidents was done on the terrorist incidents that occurred between 2015 and 2019. Hotspot analysis was also performed to highlight areas of high concentration of incidents and identify roads that are prone to Improvised explosive devices incidents. The ArcModel builder was used to build a model that carried out the terrorism risk assessment. The factors that were incorporated into the risk model were previous incidents, road network, proximity to Somalia border and Boni forest and the settlements. The results of the study were presented in form of graphs and maps. The highest number of incidents by type were improvised explosive device incidents followed by armed clashes representing 35% and 15 % of the incidents respectively. The security forces were the main target of the terrorist incidents. The hotspot areas where terrorism was prevalent was identified to be Liboi on the north eastern side of Garissa and Hulugho in the south eastern part which were areas with a high number of incidents in close proximity. These were the areas of very high risk of terrorism which reduced towards the western side of the county. It was recommended that the findings of the research be used by the security agencies to make informed decisions in the fight against terrorism. For hotspot analysis it was recommended that the incidents be weighted using either fatalities, injuries or property loss. The study proposed further research to identify other factors contributing to increased risk of terrorism and a scientific way of weighting the factors contributing to terrorism risk.

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