The two northern counties of Isiolo and Marsabit are among the most conflict-prone in Kenya. The region is mainly semi-arid, and most residents are pastoralist nomads who often clash over access to scarce pasture and water. A new devolved system of government has intensified local political competition in the two counties, especially for the powerful elected governor positions. This means general elections in August could trigger intercommunal fighting. There is still time, however, to encourage a peaceful vote.
Devolution of power and resources was one of the centrepieces of the 2010 constitution, intended to reduce the previous all-or-nothing electoral battles for the presidency, and redress regional marginalisation and inequitable development.… Seguir leyendo »
The county of Narok is one of Kenya’s most economically important regions, home to wildlife sanctuaries like the world-famous Maasai Mara reserve, vast agricultural plantations, and highways linking the East African coast to the interior.
Narok is also one of a number of Kenyan counties expected to witness heavily contested, potentially violent, local elections due in August under a system of devolved government that confers considerable power and resources to elected county-level administrators.
While a cut-throat competition for the presidency is garnering most attention, the subnational vote will be hotly contested and deserves more focus from the government and international partners.… Seguir leyendo »
Kenyans go to the polls in August, and fierce contests are likely in the race for the presidency and other elections the same day to county governorships and other senior posts. Electoral commission preparations are dangerously behind schedule amid political polarisation, growing distrust and lack of communication between parties. Given the country’s troubled electoral history, it is essential that politicians and other key stakeholders discuss and agree on the measures necessary for credible polls and a way forward on the electoral timeline.
The elections matter well beyond Kenya’s borders. The country is the transport and commercial hub of East Africa, so a protracted crisis would result in significant disruptions further afield.… Seguir leyendo »
I was in the giant crowd in Uhuru Park in downtown Nairobi in the run-up to the 2007 election when the presidential candidate Raila Odinga told his supporters they were tiny but fiery safari ants, who were going to drive the snake that had invaded the bird’s nest out of the tree.
This analogy comes from African folklore. Mr. Odinga suggested that his supporters, by their sheer numbers, were capable of achieving what the other animals of the forest were afraid of doing. The reformers who supported his democratic movement, which stood in opposition to the presidency of Mwai Kibaki, embraced the label of safari ants.… Seguir leyendo »
I must have been about 10 in colonial Kenya when I saw men, women and children in a convoy of lorries being forcibly removed from their land and relocated to some dry plains they called the land of black rocks. They sang a sorrowful melody, but one that described their love and solidarity in hardship: even when they picked a morsel from the ground, they split it among themselves. It was an image that captured vividly the ideals of mutual care and collective hope in the Kenyan anticolonial resistance. In my first trip to Europe, in 1965, virtually the entire village saw me off at the airport.… Seguir leyendo »
Uhuru Kenyatta is the president-elect of Kenya. Together with his deputy, William Ruto, he has persuaded just over 50% of Kenyans that with his Jubilee coalition in power there is a strong chance that there will be lasting peace in the Rift Valley. Voters are fully aware of this, and what this election means. International media have missed the point.
For half the country, especially the Kikuyu and Kalenjin, this election has been all about security. Nobody believes, for example, that the international criminal court is serious enough, strong enough or material enough to the political reality in Kenya to make much of a difference.… Seguir leyendo »
An extraordinary scene played out Monday night in Kenya. The seven men and one woman seeking the presidency came together for only the second time in the country’s history for a debate ahead of next Monday’s election. Most of their answers were thoughtful and respectful.
It will be the first presidential election since 2007 when the opposition, responding to allegations of vote rigging by President Mwai Kibaki’s party, began an orgy of violence that left more than 1,100 people dead and 250,000 displaced. It took former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan months to mediate an imperfect truce that nonetheless continues to hold.… Seguir leyendo »
When Kenya goes to the polls on Monday, it will mark a generational change – no matter who wins. For the first time in its history, the country will be run by a leadership with hardly any direct experience of colonialism. There are risks to this development: the new leadership might trivialise what it means to be colonised, and the insidious ways in which imperialism is reproduced.
The outgoing president, Mwai Kĩibaki, is the last of the generation that led the country to independence, and for whom, whatever the policy, imperialism and anti-colonial resistance were not just slogans. They had seen blood in the streets and mass incarceration; the Hola massacre was mere smoke at the gates of hell.… Seguir leyendo »
This morning I am going to Uhuru Park in Nairobi to plant a tree. A plaque on it will read: "This was planted to mark the moment Barack Obama was elected president of the United States of America." It will stand next to the tree that Obama planted when he visited last year, and will be a lasting testament to this historic moment: a wonderful thing for America and the world.
Across Kenya, people are celebrating the fact that a son of this nation has become president. Many stayed up all night. There is such a feeling of connection with him that a national holiday has been declared.… Seguir leyendo »
These were meant to be Kenya's golden days. A booming economy, a mobile phone for every man, woman and child, a robust and lively press. It is a tragedy for the country and the whole of Africa that a few days after Kenya's elections, curfews are being imposed, gangs of young men are fighting on the streets, security police are storming through slums looking for agitators, and disfigured corpses are being discovered around the country. As ever, there is a sense that all this bloodshed could have been averted if only politicians had stepped down when their time has passed.
Kenya had high hopes when Mwai Kibaki moved into the presidential office in December 2002.… Seguir leyendo »
Shocked by pictures of death and mayhem on the streets of Kenyan towns, a Kenyan friend in Britain called me to express her shock. “But these things don't happen in Kenya!” she exclaimed, as if Kenya - or Keenya as she pronounced it - was immune from the political ills that have plagued Africa in the past 50 years.
She is wrong. Kenya has been a catastrophe waiting to happen. Every election since multiparty politics was reintroduced in 1991 has involved rigging. So far the margin of victory has always been so great that Western diplomats - keen to maintain “stability” - could claim that the cheating would not have made a difference to the result.… Seguir leyendo »
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