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​​Books​​

Fingerprint of Empire: Biometric Infrastructures and the Making of Postcolonial Kenya (in progress)​​

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We Do Not Have Borders: Greater Somalia and the Predicaments of Belonging in Kenya. New African History series (Ohio University Press, 2017). 

 

Peer-reviewed Publications​

Keeping people out of camps: biometric technologies, contested sovereignty, and border practices within humanitarian spaces. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 15:2 (2025): 1-20.​

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​Digital credit providers, regulatory frameworks, and structural power: A case study of digital microcredit regulation in Kenya. Finance and Society 11: 1 (2025): 1-23. Co authored with Radha Upadhyaya and Linda Bonyo.​

 

​Verified human? Identity inversions in the AI era. In Reimagining AI for Environmental Justice and Creativity: Collection of Essays, eds. Jess Reia, MC Forelle, and Yingchong Wang, 67-9. Digital Technology for Democracy Lab, University of Virginia: 2025. Co-authored with Aaron Martin.

 

Digital Identity and Inclusion: Tracing Technological Transitions. Georgetown Journal of International Affairs 24:1 (2023): 36-45. Co-authored with Emrys Schoemaker and Aaron Martin.​

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Globalizing Racism and De-provincializing Muslim Africa. Modern Intellectual History 19:3 (May 2021): 912-933. Co-authored with Alden Young.​

 

Between Surveillance and Recognition: Rethinking Digital Identity in Aid. Big Data and Society 8:1 (1 April 2021). Co-authored with Margie Cheesman,  Aaron Martin, and Emrys Schoemaker.

 

Biometrics, Race Making, and White Exceptionalism: The Controversy Over Universal Fingerprinting in Post-World War II Kenya. The Journal of African History  61:1 (March 2020): 23-43.​

 

AHR Conversation: Walls, Boundaries and Borders. American Historical Review  122:5 (December 2017): 1501-1553.​

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Rethinking the “Shifta War” Fifty Years After Independence: Myth, Memory, and Marginalization. In Kenya at Fifty: History, Policy, Politics, eds. Michael M. Kithinji, Mickie M. Koster, and Jerono P. Rotich. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.​

 

Unaccountable Census: Colonial Enumeration and Its Implications for the Somali People of Kenya. The Journal of African History  56:3 (November 2015): 409-428.​

 

Producing History from Elisions, Fragments, and Silences: Public Testimony, the Asiatic Poll-Tax Campaign, and the Isaaq Somali Population of Kenya. Journal of Northeast African Studies 13:2 (2013): 177-206.

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Select Online Work​

The Britcard: “Progressive” or Concerning? British Politics and Policy at LSE (blog), 16 July 2025, co-authored with Margie Cheesman and Aaron Martin.​​​

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Carbon Fingerprints. London Review of Books (blog), 14 February 2023.​​

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Researching Digital Identity in Times of Crisis. Workshop Report for the Alan Turing Institute (August 2021).

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Machine-Readable Refugees. London Review of Books (blog), 14 September 2020.

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In Kenya, You Cannot Go Anywhere Without an ID. I Don’t Have One. Mail & Guardian, 13 April 2020.​​​

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Kenya's Controversial Biometric Project is Shrouded in Secrecy. Coda Story, 3 May 2019.

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Countries Around the World Are Using Border Surveillance Systems Against Their Own Citizens. The Conversation, 17 August 2020.

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Conversation with Ruben Andersson. Africa is a Country, 9 July 2018.​

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The Politics of National Sovereignty. Africa is a Country, 13 December 2017.​

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Conversation with Abdul Adan. Africa is a Country, 11 October 2017.

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Jeffrey Gettleman's Tired Tome. Africa is a Country, 21 August 2017.

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Instead of Building a Big, Beautiful Wall, We Should Rethink Our Idea of Borders. The Washington Post, 11 August 2017.

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Civil Society Reports​

Identification without Integration? Past and Present Challenges for Refugees and Migrants in Kenya. Co-authored with Saada Loo and Asha Jaffar, Caribou Digital, the Haki na Sheria Initiative, and the Robert Bosch Foundation.

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Primer: Defending the Rights of Refugees and Migrants in the Digital Age. Amnesty International. Based on research by Keren Weitzberg and Roya Pakzad, 5 February 2024.

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A Very British Problem: The Evolution of Britain's Militarized Industrial Complex. Report for Campaign Against the Arms Trade, 4 August 2022.

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Biometrics Collection Under the Pretext of Counter-Terrorism: Case Study of Somalia. Report for Privacy International, 28 May 2021.

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​Biometrics Collection Under the Pretext of Counter-Terrorism: Case Study of Israel/Palestine. Report for Privacy International, 28 May 2021.

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Public Art

H is for Hostile Environment (2022). Moving-image work on digital surveillance and asylum seeking in London, produced in collaboration with artist Edwin Mingard and dozens of people in London with experiences of migration. Funded by the UCL Trellis: Public Art Programme and Arts Council England.

 

Humanitarian Biometrics: Gateway or Barrier? Made in collaboration with Maddo and the Cartoon Movement. Funded by UKRI GCRF.​​

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