Ethnicity In Kenya Research Articles

Coalition Formation and the Role of Ethnicity in Kenyan General Election, 2022

The political sector of Kenya provides an interesting perspective into the importance of lineage and ethnicity in Kenyan politics. Kenyan politicians are prone to switching alliances and forming coalitions to fit within their rapidly changing party dynamics and structure which are heavily influenced by ethnic factors. The leaders of these ethnic groups too are more likely to provide support depending on future favorability during the distribution of resources or positions within the new government. This paper reviews relevant literature and uses the social cleavage theory to discuss the importance of ethnicity in the formation of coalitions in Kenyan election of 2022. Through the discussions, the paper points out the instability of coalitions mostly based on ethnicity in Kenya and recommends the pursuit of a national identity instead of an ethnic identity.

Economic signals of ethnicity and voting in Africa: analysis of the correlation between agricultural subsectors and ethnicity in Kenya

ABSTRACTThe existing literature has demonstrated that both ethnic and economic factors affect a vote decision in African democracies. I show that there is a meaningful interaction between the two cleavages in their influence on voting. In particular, I argue for political salience of agricultural subsectors that shape the electoral consequences of economic performance in the context where agricultural policy affects the livelihood of the majority population. Relying on the analyses of the 2007 and 2013 elections in Kenya, I illustrate how likely an individual, who is attached to a politically coherent ethnic group, votes for a candidate, the majority of whose ethnic members engage in the same industry as the voter himself regardless of the candidate's ethnicity. The results show that the sector factor reinforces the positive and negative effects of ethnic communities on incumbent support, and also explains voting by ethnic minorities whose motives for voting are not ethnic.

Representations of Nationhood in the Displays of the National Museums of Kenya (NMK): The Nairobi National Museum

Colonialism, with its divide-and-rule tactics, has been blamed for sowing the seeds of ethnicity in Kenya. While it was anticipated that the attainment of political independence in 1963 would herald new leadership with the desire to build a united nation, this was not to be. Instead, each successive regime has further polarized the nation by ensuring that development projects and employment opportunities are largely offered to their ethnic communities and to regions that voted for them. This has made the quest for a Kenyan nationhood untenable. The Kenyan constitution recognizes culture as the foundation of the nation and as the cumulative civilization of the Kenyan people and nation. Therefore, it is expected that culture would be used to cultivate nationhood. This article, thus, discusses the various ways the National Museums of Kenya has used cultural heritage collections and memorial monuments to represent nationhood during the last fifty years.

Does Conflict Lead to Ethnic Particularism? Electoral Violence and Ethnicity in Kenya 2005–2008

What impact does violence have on ethnic identity? Do acts of violence tend to create greater segmentation and “hardening” of identities among ethnic groups? In this article, we empirically assess the claim that violence inevitably leads to the hardening of ethnic identity (which we operationalize as expressions of ethnic particularism over a national identity). Using survey data from Kenya covering the period 2005–2008, integrated with geocoded data on conflict events in Kenya during that period, and employing multilevel logistic regression analysis, we do not find support for the contention that ethnic identity hardens inevitably as the result of violence. Rather, our findings suggest support for a more nuanced view of the effects of violence on ethnic identity.

Digitized Ethnic Hate Speech: Understanding Effects of Digital Media Hate Speech on Citizen Journalism in Kenya

Ethnicity in Kenya permeates all spheres of life. However, it is in politics that ethnicity is most visible. Election time in Kenya often leads to ethnic competition and hatred, often expressed through various media. Ethnic hate speech characterized the 2007 general elections in party rallies and through text messages, emails, posters and leaflets. This resulted in widespread skirmishes that left over 1200 people dead, and many displaced (KNHRC, 2008). In 2013, however, the new battle zone was the war of words on social media platform. More than any other time in Kenyan history, Kenyans poured vitriolic ethnic hate speech through digital media like Facebook, tweeter and blogs. Although scholars have studied the role and effects of the mainstream media like television and radio in proliferating the ethnic hate speech in Kenya (Michael Chege, 2008; Goldstein & Rotich, 2008a; Ismail & Deane, 2008; Jacqueline Klopp & Prisca Kamungi, 2007), little has been done in regard to social media. This paper investigated the nature of digitized hate speech by: describing the forms of ethnic hate speech on social media in Kenya; the effects of ethnic hate speech on Kenyan’s perception of ethnic entities; ethnic conflict and ethics of citizen journalism. This study adopted a descriptive interpretive design, and utilized Austin’s Speech Act Theory, which explains use of language to achieve desired purposes and direct behaviour (Tarhom & Miracle, 2013). Content published between January and April 2013 from six purposefully identified blogs was analysed. Questionnaires were used to collect data from university students as they form a good sample of Kenyan population, are most active on social media and are drawn from all parts of the country. Qualitative data were analysed using NVIVO 10 software, while responses from the questionnaire were analysed using IBM SPSS version 21. The findings indicated that Facebook and Twitter were the main platforms used to express ethnic hatred. Hate speech incited hatred and conflict for political gain. Ethical issues raised included moral subordination and incivility. Keywords: hate speech, Ethnicity, Ethnic conflict, digital media, social media, stereotypes, incivility, speech acts, illocutionary acts, political conflicts, moral subordination

Erasing Class/(Re)Creating Ethnicity: Jobs, Politics, Accumulation and Identity in Kenya

This paper empirically examines the relationship between employment, wages and ethnicity via a case study of Kenya. I challenge the pervasive view that ethnicity in Kenya specifically and Africa more generally is related to a primordial instinct and attempt to show empirically that ethnicity is used by politicians as a political strategy to maintain power. In the process of using ethnicity, class solidarity is explicitly down played by politicians as ethnicity is reified. In this paper I specifically examine whether jobs are being used by politicians as both reward and carrot to ensure ethnic allegiances. This is done by testing whether being a member of a dominant group (in terms of population and also politically) has an impact on the possibility of employment and the level of wages. I do this using data from the 1986 Labor Force Survey which due to timing uniquely allows me to connect ethnicity and income. I find that being in a politically dominant group improves one's chances of obtaining a full time above median wage job. I show that participation in highly remunerated sectors is highly correlated with political power and a change of ethnicity of the president may change outcomes of the past presidents “kinsfolk” being recruited into the desired sectors. Being a member of a locally dominant group in terms of population as compared to a politically dominant national group has no effect on likelihood of employment in one of the premium categories. My findings support the view that in a highly centralized and unequal state ethnicity can be reproduced via preferential employment to members of an in-group thus diminishing class solidarity that one may expect to occur between workmates.

Insulin resistance and beta-cell function in different ethnic groups in Kenya: the role of abdominal fat distribution

Little is known about the pathophysiology of diabetes in Africans. Thus, we assessed whether insulin resistance and beta-cell function differed by ethnicity in Kenya and whether differences were modified by abdominal fat distribution. A cross-sectional study in 1,087 rural Luo (n = 361), Kamba (n = 378), and Maasai (n = 348) was conducted. All participants had a standard 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Venous blood samples were collected at 0, 30, and 120 min. Serum insulin was analysed at 0 and 30 min. From the OGTT, we assessed the homoeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance by computer model, early phase insulin secretion, and disposition index (DI) dividing insulin secretion by insulin resistance. Abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) thickness were carried out by ultrasonography. Linear regression analyses were done to assess ethnic differences in insulin indices. The Maasai had 32 and 17% higher insulin resistance than the Luo and Kamba, respectively (p < 0.001). Early phase insulin secretion was 16% higher in the Maasai compared to the Luo (p < 0.001). DI was 12% (p = 0.002) and 10% (p = 0.015) lower in the Maasai compared to the Luo and Kamba, respectively. Adjustments of SAT (range 0.1-7.1 cm) and VAT (range 1.5-14.2 cm) largely explained these inter-group differences with the Maasai having the highest combined abdominal fat accumulation. The Maasai had the highest insulin resistance and secretion, but the lowest relative beta-cell function compared to the Luo and Kamba. These differences were primarily explained by abdominal fat distribution.

The Causes of Politicization of Ethnicity: A Comparative Case Study of Kenya and Tanzania

Recent literature establishes that ethnicity needs to be politically relevant to have a negative effect on a country’s development process. Yet, an understanding of the factors that cause ethnicity to be a political salient factor is still limited. This paper compares the development of the high politicization of ethnicity in Kenya to the low politicization in Tanzania by tracing the impact of ethnic structures, colonial administration, land distribution, and nation building policies on the politicization of ethnicity. Evidence from extensive archival material, historical secondary sources and expert interviews rejects the ethnic structure argument but supports the negative impact of colonial rule and land distribution, and the positive impact of nation building policies on the politicization of ethnicity. Indeed, fully implemented nation building policies, such as the promotion of Swahili and the intermingling of secondary school students, have the potential to lastingly mitigate the political salience of ethnicity.

Ethnicity and Political Pluralism in Kenya

This paper focuses on the salience of ethnicity in Kenya since the return to political pluralism in 1991. It argues that ethnicity as a variable in Kenya's political processes dates back to the colonial period. Successive governments in that country, beginning with the Jomo Kenyatta state in 1963, perfected the aspect of ethnicity that dovetailed with patronage, rent-seeking and prebendalism to the detriment of the nation state. The paper engages with the theoretical underpinnings of ethnicity in an attempt to understand its overwhelming influence on Kenya's politics, especially in the multiparty era. The thrust of the argument is that unless there is the political will to re-engineer Kenya's polity both politically and constitutionally the nationbuilding project will remain convoluted, frustrating and stillborn.

Constitutional Reform and Ethnicity in Kenya ― Multiple Identities and State-Region Relations

Constitutional Reform and Ethnicity in Kenya ― Multiple Identities and State-Region Relations

Citizenship and Ethnicity: An Examination of Two Transition Moments in Kenyan Politics

In some African countries, democratic openings have intensified ethnic competition and led to protracted transitions or outright conflict. In Kenya, I argue, the stalled transition reflects the effects ofrepublicancitizenship in ethnic political communities andliberalcitizenship in the national political community. This duality in citizenship engenders conflict over democracy—conceived as liberal majoritarian democracy—and results in ethnic coalitions disagreeing over which institutions are appropriate for a multiethnic state. I provide evidence from discourses over institutions from two transition periods in Kenya: at independence and in the recent shift from one-party rule. This study makes two contributions. First, it adds to current citizenship theory, which is largely derived from Western experience, by demonstrating that republican and liberal citizenships are not necessarily compatible and that the modern nation-state is not the only relevant community for forming citizens. Second, it adds to studies of African transitions by highlighting citizenship issues in institutional design with regard to ethnicity in Kenya.

Burying Otieno: The Politics of Gender and Ethnicity in Kenya

In 1987 a Kenyan widow was taken to court by her dead husband's family in a sensational contest over the burial of his remains. Wambui Otieno, the wife of a prominent criminal lawyer, S. M. Otieno, became the eye of a storm about customary law, women's rights, and intertribal marriages following the lawyer's death intestate in December 1986. Wambui is a member of the Kikuyu ethnic group; Otieno was a Luo. Otieno's clan, Umira Kager, blocked the widow's plans to bury her husband in Nairobi, the home where he

Books

Ethnics and ethnicity at workSandra Wallman (ed.), Ethnicity at Work, MacMillan, 1979, 252 pages. £4.95. French, English and immigrants Gary P. Freeman, Immigrant Labor and Racial Conflict in Industrial Societies: The French and British Experience, 1945–75, Princeton University Press, 1979. Alien movements Guy S. Goodwin‐Gill, International Law and the Movement of Persons Between States. oup, 1978. £14.00. Guestworkers and the German economic miracle Ray C. Rist, Guestworkers in Germany: The Prospects of Pluralism, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1978. 263 pp. A textbook on Muslim law David Pearl, A Textbook on Muslim Law, 1979, Croom Helm Ltd. (also pubd. in Bombay), hardback, ISBN 0856649597, £14.95. paperback, ISBN 0709902158, £6.95.) Linguistics and sociologese Howard Giles and Bernard Saint‐Jacques, eds, Language and ethnic relations, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1979. ii, 251 pp. Further reading Rama Kant Agnihotri, Processes of assimilation: a socio‐linguistic study of Sikh children in Leeds, University of York, D.Phil, dissertation, 1979. David J. Parkin, ‘Language choice in two Kampala housing estates’, W. H. Whiteley (ed), Language use and social change, Oxford U.P., 1971. David J. Parkin, ‘Language shift and ethnicity in Kenya’, W. H. Whiteley (ed), Language in Kenya, Oxford U.P., 1974. A. Tabouret‐Keller, ‘Un champ sémantique: les noms d'appartenance raciale au Honduras Britannique’, La Linguistique 11, 1, 123–133, 1975. Personality variables in prejudice C. Bagley, G. K. Verma, K. Maixick and L. Young, Personality, Self‐Esteem and Prejudice, Saxon House, London, 1979 £8.50. 244 pp. The imprint of discrimination on children Martin Hoyles (ed.) Changing Childhood, Writers & Readers Pub. Co‐op, 1979. £3.25 paperback. Fostering Black Children, CRC publication, 1975, 30p. Paperback. Dawn Day, The Adoption of Black Children, Lexington Books, 1979. £10.50 hardback. Brian Jackson and Sonia Jackson, Childminder: A Study in Action Research; RKP, 1979. £7.95 hardback. Brian Jackson, Starting School, Croom Helm, 1979. £7.95 hardback. Demythologising ethnic crime Philip Stevens and Carole F. Willis, Race, Crime and Arrests, Home Office Research Study No. 58, H.M.S.O. London, 1979, 69 pp. £2.75. British bureaucrats and the ‘Jewish problem’ B. Wasserstein, Britain and the Jews of Europe 1939–45, London OUP, 1979. Locating Jewish communities in England B. A. Kosmin, Caren Levy, and Peter Wigodsky, The Social Demography of Redbridge Jewry, Board of Deputies of British Jews. 1979. A century of Whitechapel William J. Fishman, The Streets of East London, Duckworth, 1979, paperback £4.95. With photographs by Nicholas Breach. British Jews and the Age of Emancipation Todd M. Endelman, The Jews of Georgian England 1714–1830: Tradition and Change in a Liberal Society, The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979, n.p