No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Constitutional and Legal Reform in the Postcolony of Kenya
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 August 2021
Extract
The central government of Kenya is well known for its use of the legal system, state structures, and the KANU (Kenya African National Union) party apparatus to threaten and thwart those who criticize its undemocratic practices and human rights violations. There are numerous and detailed accounts of attacks on the news media, the denial of permits for opposition public speaking events, the disruption of opposition party meetings, and the arrest and incarceration of reformist political and religious leaders. It is common for the central government to criminalize political activity by charging critics with sedition or holding an illegal meeting, and to use police violence to break up both licensed and unlicensed political events. Government officials and institutions played a major role in inciting and organizing violence in the Rift Valley from 1991 to 1993 that led to the deaths of over 1,500 people. The return to multiparty politics in 1991, after a lapse of 26 years when KANU reigned supreme, has done little to change these practices. Repression of the freedom of assembly, the freedom of association, and the freedom of expression is the modus operandi of the Kenyan nation-state.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © African Studies Association 1997
Footnotes
*
Diane Ciekawy is an assistant professor of Anthropology at Ohio University, and was recently a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University where she had the opportunity to conduct research related to this article. Her primary interests lie in religion, politics, and human rights
References
Notes
1. The most detailed accounts can be found in the Quarter Repression Reports of the Kenya Human Rights Commission. Other papers and documents that summarize events in the 1990s include “Independence Without Freedom: The Legitimation of Repressive Laws and Practices in Kenya, Nairobi”: Kenya Human Rights Commission, 1994; and Joel, Solomon, “Failing the Democratic Challenge: Freedom of Expression in Multi-Party Kenya-1993,” Washington: Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, 1994 Google Scholar.
2. See Africa Watch, Divide and Rule: State-Sponsored Ethnic Violence in Kenya, New York: Human Rights Watch, November 1993 Google Scholar; Gibson Kamau, Kuria, “Majimboism, Ethnic Cleansing and Constitutionalism in Kenya, Nairobi: Human Rights Commission, 1994 Google Scholar; Kiraitu, Murungi, “Ethnicity, Multi-Partism in Kenya,” Nairobi: Human Rights Commission, 1995 Google Scholar.
3. In 1991, due to intense pressure from the public, opposition leaders, lawyers, academics, church leaders, the press, and Western countries, the government of Kenya agreed to permit the formation and registration of parties other than KANU.
4. The interest in constitutional reform has a long history in postcolonial Kenya, but explicit proposals for change emerged in the early 1990s through the combined efforts of the Law Society of Kenya, the Kenya Human Rights Commission, and the International Commission of Jurists (Kenya Section). A full set of proposed changes in the Constitution are contained in Kenya Tuitakayo (The Kenya We Want): Proposal for a Model Constitution, 1996. It is jointly produced by the above groups.
5. Diane, Ciekawy, “Witchcraft Eradication as Political Process in Kilifi District, Kenya, 1955-1988,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1992 Google Scholar.
6. Detailed discussions on administrative control over cultural practice are contained in Diane, Ciekawy, “Policing Religious Practice in Contemporary Coastal Kenya,” Political and Legal Anthropology Review, vol. 20, number 1, 1997, pp. 62–72 Google Scholar; and Diane, Ciekawy, “Human Rights and State Power on the Kenya Coast,” Humanity and Society, vol. 21, number 2, 1997, pp. 130-47Google Scholar.
7. The history of these Acts can be found in Yash, Ghai and J.P.W.B.McAuslan, , Public Law and Political Change in Kenya, Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1970 Google Scholar.
8. Makau wa Mutua, “Human Rights and State Despotism in Kenya: Institutional Problems,” Africa Today, 4th Quarter, 1994, p. 53.
9. Willy, Mutunga, The Rights of an Arrested and an Accused Person (Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 20 Google Scholar.
10. See Achille, Mbembe, “Provisional Notes on the Postcolony,” Africa, vol. 62, 1992, pp. 3-37Google Scholar; Mahmood, Mamdani, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996 Google Scholar.
11. Kivutha, Kibwana, Fundamental Rights and Freedoms in Kenya, Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1990, p. 45 Google Scholar; Makau wa Mutua, “Human Rights and State Despotism in Kenya: Institutional Problems,” Africa Today, 4th Quarter, 1994, 55.
12. Joel, Solomon, “Failing the Democratic Challenge: Freedom of Expression in Multi-Party Kenya-1993,” Washington: Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, 1994, p. 2 Google Scholar.
13. Makau wa Mutua, “Human Rights and State Despotism in Kenya: Institutional Problems,” Africa Today, 4th Quarter, 1994, p. 55.