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Moral Ethnicity and Political Tribalism in Kenya’s “Virtual Democracy”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2016

Stephen Orvis
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Extract

Kenyan politics have long been among the most “ethnic” in Africa. From the battles over the constitutional formula for independence to the waning days of the one-party regime in the late 1980s, Kenyan politicians sought support from their ethnic or subethnic groups, and citizens perceived most political battles to be about dividing the “national cake” among the constituent ethnic groups. Political liberalization since 1991 has not fundamentally changed this atmosphere. Most obviously, it has allowed ethnic politics to reemerge into open, public debate. Ruling and opposition parties represent primarily all, some, or coalitions of ethnic groups. Ethnically marked electoral violence, largely instigated by the ruling regime, has come to be expected, though not accepted, as part of the campaign season. Leaders are far more prone to make appeals to the state for resources in openly ethnic terms than they dared to do in the one-party era.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 29 , Issue 1-2 , 2001 , pp. 8 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2001 

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References

Notes

1. Lonsdale, John, “Moral Ethnicity and Political Tribalism,” in Inventions and Boundaries: Historical and Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism, ed. Kaarsholm, Preben and Hultin, Jan (Denmark: Institute for Development Studies, Roskilde University, 1994), pp. 131–150 Google Scholar.

2. Joseph, Richard, “Democratization in Africa After 1989: Comparative and Theoretical Perspectives,” Comparative Politics 29 (1997): pp. 363–382 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3. Barkan, Joel, “Kenya: Lessons from a Flawed Election,” Journal of Democracy 4, no. 3 (1993): pp. 85–99 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4. Lonsdale, “Moral Ethnicity and Political Tribalism,” p. 131.

5. Barkan, Joel and Ng’ethe, Njuguna, “Kenya Tries Again,” Journal of Democracy 9, no. 2 (1998): 43 Google Scholar.

6. Republic of Kenya, Report of the Parliamentary Select Committee to Investigate Ethnic Clashes in Western and Other Parts of Kenya (Nairobi: Government of Kenya, 1992); Human Rights Watch, Divide and Rule: State-sponsored Ethnic Violence in Kenya (New York, US: Human Rights Watch, 1993)Google Scholar.

7. Jacqueline Klopp, Can Moral Ethnicity Trump Political Tribalism? The Struggle for Land and Nation in Kenya, African Studies, forthcoming.

8. Wamue, Grace Nyatugah, “Revisiting Our Indigenous Shrines Through Mungikir ” African Affairs 100 (2001): 460 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9. Klopp, Can Moral Ethnicity Trump Political Tribalism? p. 23.