Political Violence in Kenya

Political Violence in Kenya PDF

Author: Kathleen Klaus

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-05-28

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 1108488501

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An analysis of land and natural resource conflict as a source of political violence, focusing on election violence in Kenya.

Kenya

Kenya PDF

Author: Fidelis Edge Kanyongolo

Publisher: Article 19

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13:

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3.2 The "clashes" break out

Political Violence in Kenya

Political Violence in Kenya PDF

Author: Kathleen Klaus

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-05-28

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 1108802648

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Examining a key puzzle in the study of electoral violence, this study asks how elites organize violence and why ordinary citizens participate. While existing theories of electoral violence emphasize weak institutions, ethnic cleavages, and the strategic use of violence, few specify how the political incentives of elites interact with the interests of ordinary citizens. Providing a new theory of electoral violence, Kathleen F. Klaus analyzes violence as a process of mobilization that requires coordination between elites and ordinary citizens. Drawing on fifteen months of fieldwork in Kenya, including hundreds of interviews and an original survey, Political Violence in Kenya argues that where land shapes livelihood and identity, and tenure institutions are weak, land, and narratives around land, serve as a key device around which elites and citizens coordinate the use of violence. By examining local-level variation during Kenya's 2007–8 post-election violence, Klaus demonstrates how land struggles structure the dynamics of contentious politics and violence.

Kenya: Post-election Political Violence

Kenya: Post-election Political Violence PDF

Author:

Publisher:

Published:

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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"Kenya: Post-election Political Violence" (ISBN: 1-870798-94-5) is a report that was written by Edge Kanyongolo and Jon Lunn and edited by Richard Carver and Njonjo Mue. Article 19, a United Kingdom organization that promotes freedom of expression worldwide, originally published the report in December 1998 and presents the online version. The authors highlight the ethnic clashes that broke out in Kenya following the December 1997 general elections and note the importance of land reform, impartiality of the judicial process, and an improvement in ethnic relations as a means to prevent political violence in the country.

Healing the Wound. Personal Narratives about the 2007 Post-Election Violence in Kenya

Healing the Wound. Personal Narratives about the 2007 Post-Election Violence in Kenya PDF

Author: Kimani Njogu

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2009-12-01

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 9966028145

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The narratives collected by Twaweza Communications in this volume tell yet another side of the story about the violence that engulfed Kenya towards the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008. The narratives are part of a Daraja Initiative involving media monitoring, reflections and documentation of the traumatic post-election violence period often associated with the contested presidential results of 2007. The goal of the project is to contribute to the protection of constitutional rights of all Kenyans and to the development of a just and democratic country. Because violent conflicts constitute ruptures and continuities and are often preceded by tensions over the uncomfortable co-existence of political, economic, social and cultural systems and relations of power as well as what is perceived as valuable, mobilisation for violence is driven by narratives of the legality and correctness of action such that notions of history, justice and memory are functions of narrative construction, power and authority. Narratives of violent conflict, such as happened in Kenya, are not absolute: they are contested, contradictory and incomplete. But they must be told so that the multiple voices from the citizens are heard.

Violence in African Elections

Violence in African Elections PDF

Author: Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.

Published: 2018-04-15

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1786992310

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Multiparty elections have become the bellwether by which all democracies are judged, and the spread of these systems across Africa has been widely hailed as a sign of the continent’s progress towards stability and prosperity. But such elections bring their own challenges, particularly the often intense internecine violence following disputed results. While the consequences of such violence can be profound, undermining the legitimacy of the democratic process and in some cases plunging countries into civil war or renewed dictatorship, little is known about the causes. By mapping, analysing and comparing instances of election violence in different localities across Africa – including Kenya, Ivory Coast and Uganda – this collection of detailed case studies sheds light on the underlying dynamics and sub-national causes behind electoral conflicts, revealing them to be the result of a complex interplay between democratisation and the older, patronage-based system of ‘Big Man’ politics. Essential for scholars and policymakers across the social sciences and humanities interested in democratization, peace-keeping and peace studies, Violence in African Elections provides important insights into why some communities prove more prone to electoral violence than others, offering practical suggestions for preventing violence through improved electoral monitoring, voter education, and international assistance.

Kenyaís Past as Prologue

Kenyaís Past as Prologue PDF

Author: Fouere, Marie-Aude

Publisher: Twaweza Communications

Published: 2015-06-16

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 996602851X

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During the run-up to Kenya's 2013 general elections, crucial political and civic questions were raised. Could past mistakes, especially political and ethnic-related violence, be avoided this time round? Would the spectre of the 2007 post-electoral violence positively or negatively affect debates and voting? How would politicians, electoral bodies such as the IEBC, the Kenyan civil society, and the international community weigh in on the elections? More generally, would the 2013 elections bear witness to the building up of an electoral culture in Kenya, characterized by free and fair elections, or would it show that voting is still weakened by political malpractices, partisan opinions and emotional reactions? Would Kenya's past be inescapable or would it prepare the scene for a new political order? Kenyaís Past as Prologue adopts a multidisciplinary perspective ñ mainly built upon field-based ethnography and a selection of case studies ñ to answer these questions. Under the leadership of the French Institute for Research in Africa (Institut francais de recherche en Afrique, IFRA), political scientists, historians and anthropologists explore various aspects of the electoral process to contribute in-depth analyses of the last elections. They highlight the structural factors underlying election and voting in Kenya including the political system, culture and political transition. They also interrogate the short-term trends and issues that influence the new political order. The book provides insight into specific case studies, situations and contexts, thus bringing nuances and diversity into focus to better assess Kenya's evolving electoral democracy.

Post-Election Violence in Africa

Post-Election Violence in Africa PDF

Author: Meshack Simati

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-09-30

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 9781032174600

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This book explores the effect of the judiciary on the incidence of post-election violence by political actors across Africa and within African countries. It examines how variation in judicial independence can constrain or incentivize election violence among democratizing states. Using case studies and cross-national analysis, the book shows that variation in levels of judicial independence from a non-independent judiciary to a quasi-independent judiciary or from a fully independent judiciary to quasi-independent judiciary increases the likelihood of strategic use of post-election violence by non-state actors. However, the likelihood of post-election violence is significantly reduced in non-independent judiciaries or once countries' judiciaries become fully independent. The author makes the theoretical argument that, within unconsolidated states, non-state actors that view the judiciary as semi-independent are more likely to engage in post-election violence with the purpose of creating political and professional uncertainty in order to influence assertive behaviour from judges in disputed elections. Consequently, the book argues that semi-independent judiciaries or judiciaries that are neither fully controlled by the incumbent nor fully independent from the incumbent can help explain post-election violence among unconsolidated states, all else being equal. This book will be of interest to scholars of election violence, democratic politics, law and politics and African politics.

The Socio-Cultural, Ethnic and Historic Foundations of Kenya’s Electoral Violence

The Socio-Cultural, Ethnic and Historic Foundations of Kenya’s Electoral Violence PDF

Author: Stephen M. Magu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-02-02

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1351142429

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Kenya’s 2007 General Election results announcement precipitated the worst ethnic conflict in the country’s history; 1,133 people were killed, while 600,000 were internally displaced. Within 2 months, the incumbent and the challenger had agreed to a power-sharing agreement and a Government of National Unity. This book investigates the role of socio-cultural origins of ethnic conflict during electoral periods in Kenya beginning with the multi-party era of democratization and the first multi-party elections of 1992, illustrating how ethnic groups construct their interests and cooperate (or fail to) based on shared traits. The author demonstrates that socio-cultural traditions have led to the collaboration (and frequent conflict) between the Kikuyu and Kalenjin that has dominated power and politics in independent Kenya. The author goes onto evaluate the possibility of peace for future elections. This book will be of interest to scholars of African democracy, Kenyan history and politics, and ethnic conflict.