Post-election Violence In Kenya Research Articles

Legacies of Colonial Violence in Contemporary Transitional Justice: Memories of Mau Mau, the ‘Kapenguria Six’ and the ‘Ocampo Six’ in Kenya

ABSTRACT∞ This article assesses the enduring impact of colonial violence in responses to modern conflict by transitional justice mechanisms. It presents an example of how societies continue to be structured by racial and colonial injustice and how this influences contemporary transitional justice. This is done through an analysis of the popular memory of the Mau Mau insurgency from 1952 to 1960 in Kenya, the trial of the six Kenyan nationalists known as the ‘Kapenguria Six’ by the British colonial administration and the trials of six Kenyans alleged to be most responsible for orchestrating the 2007–2008 post-election violence in Kenya, known as the ‘Ocampo Six’ before the International Criminal Court (ICC). In the Kenyan context, the influence of memories of colonial violence enabled the promotion of political agendas and arguably coloured public debate surrounding the two Kenya cases before the ICC. Transitional justice mechanisms such as the ICC do not operate in an ahistorical vacuum and international criminal trials as a form of transitional justice may be contested where there is no genuine accountability, redress or reparations for victims of colonial crimes. However, the juxtaposition of colonial crimes and the ICC prosecutions in Kenya also raises important questions relating to accountability for historical crimes in former colonies, the temporal limitations of transitional justice mechanisms and their unequal application.

Causes and Consequences of Post-Election Violence in Kenya

The election of leaders by the people is the aim of democratic procedures. An electoral system is intended to ensure that the outcomes reflect the preferences of the majority of voters, providing elected officials’ legitimacy, and that the results are unchallenged in any form. The aim of this study was to identify the causes of the post-election violence. Voting theory served as the foundation for this work. A descriptive study approach using both qualitative and quantitative methods was used by the researcher. The research was carried out from July 2022 to December 2022. Political parties, political analysts, IEBC members, legislators, and voters made up the study's target population. The researcher employed the stratified random sampling technique. The target population established the strata, and a random sample was taken from each stratum. The researcher used interview guide techniques to collect data, using items that were developed from the study objectives and research questions. Questionnaires and interviews were the two main ways that data were gathered. Voters were handed questionnaires, and interview guidelines were provided for political experts, electoral experts, and IEBC officials. The information gathered through the use of questionnaires was statistically analyzed using descriptive methods. According to the findings, disputed election results, tribalism, inadequate electoral conflict resolution mechanisms, the "winner-takes-it-all" election system, perceived bias of the electoral management body, and voter incitement by politicians are among the main causes of post-election violence in Kenya since 1963. Casualties, internally displaced people, the damage to private and public property, economic instability, and emotional and psychological suffering are only a few of the key effects of the post-election violence in Kenya. The report recommends, among other things, looking at alternative choices, including mixed-member and proportional representation models, since they are more inclusive and produce fair representation, as a remedy for the existing polarizing plurality voting system.

Modernizing the Kenyan Electoral System through Polkadot Blockchain Network

The 2007/8 post-election violence in Kenya brought the nascent Kenyan democracy to the brink of collapse. It anachronistically demonstrated that old ways of managing elections were being antiquated by new realities, such as a growing population, the need for technological support, and the immediacy of a supportive electoral legal regime. A decade and a half after the posthumous murder of Kenyans during the 2007 disputed election, Kenya is leapfrogging and sauntering to establish a vibrant democracy, albeit with specific challenges. Firstly, the presidential elections have been disputed thrice after the promulgation of the constitution in 2010. And secondly, the allegation of voter fraud against the electoral body is imminent. Further, public trust in the electoral body is low and has been so since the advent of pluralism politics in 1991. Besides, the electoral body gets overwhelmed by the number of elections they manage during the general elections, and technological failures have been a significant impediment. Ostensibly, these challenges compound an existing problem of mistrust among political players and gather moss, especially during the period between the end of the voting exercise and the announcement of presidential results by the electoral body. Erstwhile, such a fragile situation manifested and threatened public safety after the 2013, 2017, and 2022 general elections. However, despite scepticism, the finality of the supreme court process as an arbitrator of the disputed presidential elections has played a role in quelling violence and settling such matters. In this article, the author argues that the maturation of digital democracies and the incorporation of blockchain technologies can modernize grassroots elections and resolve allegations of voter fraud.

Data Sharing and Information Platforms in Crisis Response and Preparedness: Exploring the Role of Open Data Sharing Platforms and Collective Intelligence in COVID-19 Response Efforts, and Preparedness for Future Pandemics

COVID-19 has wreaked unprecedented havoc in the world. Response efforts have also made huge evident gaps in preparedness and governments around the world's capacity to respond to a health crisis of this magnitude adequately. As a result, local communities have taken matters into their own hands and turned to technology platforms to coordinate mutual aid efforts, shed light on response gaps, and hold governments accountable. This paper explores the role of open data sharing platforms and collective intelligence in COVID-19 response efforts by studying two examples of community-led initiatives from Spain and Japan. Frena La Curva (Spain) and Safecast (Japan) utilized the Ushahidi platform, an open-source technology tool born out of Kenya's post-election violence that has been widely used in over 160 countries for crisis response since its inception in 2008. Research reports have been warning of pandemic breakouts for decades. However, the response to COVID-19 was inadequate, with healthcare systems buckling under the pressure of the spread of the disease. Moreover, existing social protection programs could not shield citizens despite having experienced similar economic impacts in the years that have passed. Data hugging and suppression of information regarding the pandemic outbreak led to significant delays in measures being put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19. This paper proposes that governments would benefit from leveraging open data and technology platforms to engage with ordinary citizens and eliminate data blind spots in the design of social protection programs. It also posits that we need to invest in interoperable data exchange systems to increase the speed of response and learning. Finally, it also proposes the need for internet freedom and access as a critical tool for preparedness by enabling the free flow of information.

Towards an evaluation of the nexus between unfettered, unregulated capitalism, donor aid and debt relief inconsistencies, and the problem of post-election violence in Kenya

ABSTRACT Although internal structural factors in emerging democracies and factors related to the electoral process and contest remain indispensable in understanding post-election violence, they are not sufficient in an era of full-fledged neoliberal globalisation, enshrined in the Washington Consensus and the productivist development model enforced by the World Bank. Accordingly, this paper approaches electoral violence in Africa through the lens of unfettered, unregulated capitalism. Based on insights from Belgian historian Éric Toussaint, it assumes the posture that violent contestation of state power, in Kenya, is also indicative of the insatiable pursuit of profit, by global capitalists. Grounded in historical data from Human Rights Watch annual reports (1991–2008), it tests, through Kenya’s first four multiparty elections conducted during the Moi and Kibaki eras, covering the period 1992–2007, the hypothesis that ‘Aid and debt relief inconsistencies by donors and international financial institutions have emboldened the Kenyan government to disregard human rights, leading to impunity, which has yielded post-election violence’. It finds, partly, that ‘donors seem willing to countenance harassment and intimidation of the Kenyan government’s critics as long as the government continues to liberalize the economy and retain a multiparty system in name’, an element that could also explain post-election violence.

Traversing the geographies of displacement, livelihoods, and embodied health and wellbeing of senior women in Kenya

This paper explores the geographies of displacement and land dispossession issues in Kenya that have created social inequalities and affected the livelihood options, health, and wellbeing of displaced senior women. It draws from a qualitative study of senior women (aged ≥50 years) who have experienced displacement and are currently living in the central region of Kenya. The women took part in two focus group discussions (n = 24 participants) and three in-depth interviews (n = 3). The paper is informed by two frameworks: accumulation by dispossession and the eco-social frameworks to explore how the land tenure system has contributed to land dispossession and the many associated cycles of post-election violence in Kenya. The paper narrates how forced evictions due to colonization and subsequent privatization of community commons such as land have affected people's lives and livelihoods, particularly the livelihood options available to women hence creating points of stress and distress. As women navigate the challenges of displacement and land dispossession coupled with environmental changes, they must also manage the accompanying worries and uncertainties related to providing basic needs for their families and ensuring the sustainability of their lineage. As a result, the experiences of hardship and “worrying too much” are embodied and reflected in the health and wellbeing of senior women. Addressing the challenges of displacement and land dispossession is paramount in Kenya's effort to becoming a prosperous nation with a high quality of life for all its citizens but especially for those experiencing land dispossession.

CANDIDATE REGISTRATION SYSTEM AND RESULTS TRANSMISSION SYSTEM ON CREDIBILITY OF THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN KENYA; A CASE STUDY OF NAIROBI COUNTY

In a multi-party democracy, it is expected from both the elected and appointed government officials at all levels of the political system to render periodic accounts of their stewardship to the population. There has been recurring post-election violence in Kenya due to disputed elections. The announcement of the disputed 2007 presidential election results in Kenya on December 27th, 2007 led to what could be described as the worst political crisis in Kenyan postcolonial history. This study was guided by the following specific objectives; to assess the effect of Candidate Registration System (CRS) on the credibility of the Electoral System in Nairobi County and to evaluate the effect of Results Transmission System (RTS) on the credibility of the Electoral System in Nairobi County. The study was anchored on Technology Acceptance Theory and employed a descriptive research design. The target population was 2,251,929 registered voters in Nairobi County and 40 Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, technical officials. A sample size of 351 respondents was used determined using Fisher’s (2007) formula. Primary data for this study was collected using structured questionnaires. The analysis involved both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The inferential results showed a positive correlation of (r=0.554, p=0.000) between Candidate Registration System (CRS) and credibility of electoral systems. Findings on Results Transmission System (RTS) and credibility of electoral systems showed a positive correlation of (r=0.648, p=0.000). Furthermore there was a significant effect between Candidate Registration System (CRS) and credibility of electoral systems (?=.152, p=0.000), and on Results Transmission System (RTS) and credibility of electoral systems (?=.155, p=0.000). The study concluded that Candidate Registration System (CRS) and Results Transmission System (RTS) are critical in producing high-quality, tamper resistant voter ID cards and electoral results. The study recommends that there should be adequate policy and strict protocols for supervision, management, transmission and storage ofelectoral data.

Post-election violence in Kenya: leadership legacies, demography and motivations

ABSTRACT To understand the political geography of Kenya’s 2007–08 post-election violence (PEV), locational (territorial) and relational (ethnic community) theories of how context affects politics are combined. This hybrid conceptualization provides a nuanced illustration of how subnational violence patterns are shaped by Kenyans’ ethnic community-level experiences and by regional demography. Communities whose leaders have held presidential office in the past (prior-incumbents) have skill using government institutions to distribute material benefits to supporters, which increases their motivations for political activity, including violence. Where the size of the two prior-incumbent communities – Kikuyu and Kalenjin – are large, the severity of PEV is elevated. The presence of a community without these experiences controlling the presidency acts as a buffer, reducing the severity of conflict. Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzioa counties are used as illustrative cases highlighting the relationship between locational–relational contexts and PEV. While both counties endured substantial electoral conflict, Trans Nzoia’s comparatively diverse ethnic geography diluted the incentives for deadly PEV. Understanding these multidimensional contextual influences for violence improves the understanding of conflict geography.

Omogusii Omokimbizi: A Gusii Popular Artist’s Meditation on the Post-election Violence in Kenya

ABSTRACT:The 2007–2008 post-election violence in Kenya marked a momentous period in the country’s history due to the unprecedented loss of life, displacement, destruction of property, animosity and ethnic strife, courtesy of the disputed presidential elections. The period is chronicled in the minds and works of local artists and historians for posterity and to reflect the country’s identity. A Gusii secular pop artist, Henry Sagero Maiko, and his Bonyakoni Kirwanda Band, recounts the numerous events of this period in their song “Omogusii Omokimbizi”, with shocking revelations of the ghastly deeds and callous experiences undergone by the kinsfolk and citizenry in the given period. These form the focus of this paper, which highlights the popular artist’s reflection on the pre-election, election and post-election period occurrences, the resilience of the Kenyan populace, and the way forward, which depicts the measures to avert a relapse in the future.

Restrained or constrained? Elections, communal conflicts, and variation in sexual violence

Anecdotal evidence suggests that sexual violence varies significantly across cases of election violence and communal conflicts but systematic research is scarce. Post-election violence is particularly likely if electoral mobilization further polarizes longstanding communal conflicts and political elites do not instruct security forces to intervene decisively. I comparatively analyse two prominent cases of post-election violence in Kenya (2007/8) and Nigeria (2008) that exhibit stark variation in sexual violence. Patrimonial networks and norms of violent masculinity that increase the probability of (gang) rape were present in both cases and do not explain variation. Civil war research has identified three explanations for the variation in sexual violence: situational constraints; ordered sexual violence or restraint; and bottom-up dynamics of sexual violence or restraint. I examine these for the context of post-election violence. I argue that the type of communal conflict triggered by electoral mobilization explains variation in sexual violence. In Kenya, pogroms of a majority group against a minority allowed for the time and space to perpetrate widespread sexual violence while in Nigeria, dyadic clashes between similarly strong groups offered less opportunity but produced a significantly higher death toll. These findings have important implications for preventing election violence. They demonstrate that civilian vulnerability is gendered and that high levels of sexual violence do not necessarily correspond to high levels of lethal violence. Ignoring sexual violence means underestimating the real intensity of conflict and its impact on the political process.

The Aftermath of the 2007/08 Post-Election Violence in Kenya and the Role of Religion

The Aftermath of the 2007/08 Post-Election Violence in Kenya and the Role of Religion

Community Media: Building Trust and Resilience in Kenyan Post-Election Conflicts

This article examines the constructive roles of community and faith-based radio in building resilience and trust in Kenya after post-election violence. Since the 2007/08 post-election violence, Kenya has had two hotly contested elections (2013 and 2017), which have contributed to the lack of trust in electoral institutions and government and the ongoing mistrust between and among different communities. Both mainstream and community media have been criticized for playing destructive roles during post-election violence in Kenya with little focus on any of their constructive roles in the post-conflict period. A key point in this article is that community radio can be used to facilitate peaceful social dialogue and build trust and resilience between and among different communities in Kenya. This is based on the fact that they actually show promising potentials to promote dialogue and better understanding among conflicting communities.

The Lost Kenyan Duel: The Role of Politics in the Collapse of the International Criminal Court Cases against Ruto and Kenyatta

This article contributes to the debate concerning the International Criminal Court and politics by regarding the Court as a coliseum on whose floor the Prosecutor duels with the defendants of his/her choosing. It focuses on the Ruto and Kenyatta cases arising from the 2007/2008 post-election violence in Kenya. The article begins with a background to the post-election violence. The second part discusses Kenya’s initial efforts to halt the icc proceedings against the six suspects. The third part considers how Kenyatta and Ruto used the icc prosecutions against them to get elected to the country’s presidency. The fourth part discusses how Kenya’s non-cooperation with the Prosecutor and the recantation and withdrawal of witnesses led to the collapse of the Kenyatta and Ruto cases. The fifth and final part concludes by arguing that the Prosecutor lost the duel due to a political miscalculation which Kenyatta and Ruto used to their advantage.

Women’s experiences of peacebuilding in violence-affected communities in Kenya

Despite the attention to gender and conflict in empirical positivist peace research, and the interest in local agency in recent peacebuilding literature, women’s understandings and lived experiences of peacebuilding are not necessarily well accounted for. This article, drawing on interviews, focus groups and observation research with 57 female victims/survivors of post-election violence in Kenya, provides an ethnographic study of women’s largely informal peacebuilding activities, ranging from mediation and dialogue to economic empowerment. It analyses women’s constructions and ways of making sense of being peacebuilders, demonstrating that, while participants employed dominant gender frames, they exerted considerable transformative agency in their communities. It argues that their ‘gendered responsibility for peace’ at community level is simultaneously empowering and disempowering. The research aims to increase understanding of the gendered nature of peacebuilding and the ways in which women exercise peacebuilding agency through a focus on their own voices and lived experiences.

In Search of the Transformative Imaginary: Literary Representations of Non-State Violence in the Globalized Postcolony

Though revolutionary violence and the violence of the dispossessed gained a liberatory valence in its theorization during the anticolonial era by a wide range of writers, including Frantz Fanon, the liberatory aspects of such violence have diminished after decolonization. In contradistinction to the anticolonial view of the violence of the dispossessed, dominant discourse, as Priyamvada Gopal asserts, “assumes, rather than argues for, its fundamental unacceptability.” Yet a critical analysis of the globalized postcolonial world reveals a continuity between the economic and political dispossession, and excessive forms of state violence of colonial history and the postcolonial present. Simultaneously, the emergence of new forms of violence stemming from the dispossessed is increasingly evident in individual acts of terror and in moments of communal inter-ethnic conflict, the violence of which, though inextricably linked to historical and political processes of dispossession, is no longer mobilized by the transformative politics which drove the militancy of anticolonial movements. In order critically to examine this impasse between a discursive insistence on non-violence on the one hand and the persistence of colonial forms of state and economic violence in the postcolony on the other, this essay analyzes literature arising in response to the 2007/2008 post-election violence in Kenya, focusing on representations of the Mau Mau Uprising which, I argue, evacuate the liberatory potential of resistant, non-state violence. While acknowledging the validity of non-violent approaches in general, and in the specific project of healing in response to the PEV, this essay argues contemporary Kenyan literature ascribes to the discursive assumption which delegitimizes the violence of the dispossessed, without imagining resistance or alternative transformative strategies that might demonstrably redress the material and political problems faced by the dispossessed in Kenya after independence which give rise to the PEV and which emerges as imperative to avoid such violence in the future.

Forced male circumcision: gender-based violence in Kenya

Forced male circumcision has not yet been recognized as a specific gendered human rights abuse in international humanitarian law. This article takes the first step towards assessing these acts by considering them in the context of post-election violence in Kenya in 2007. This case allows for the exploration of how forced male circumcision was used in a context of political violence and militia-led—and often state-sanctioned—terror. The article thus considers multiple legal issues and concerns that arise from this sort of violence in different contexts. I situate the case within a larger framework of conventional understandings on gender and violence as a means to question them and render them problematic. Specifically, I argue that understanding sexual violence as exclusively targeting women prevents appropriate prosecution of forced male circumcisions in Kenya and of sexual violence against men more generally. Sexual violence against men involves forms of emasculation in which perpetrators seek to feminize their victims by rendering them weak, violated and passive, in contradistinction to stereotypical masculine ideals. If one's relationship to femininity is a crucial issue in sexual violence, whether the victims are men or women, then being able to properly account for cases like Kenya, in both a political and a legal sense, is crucial to legal accountability for sexual violence more broadly.

Short Communication: A qualitative assessment of food security in an internally displaced persons camp in Kenya

The 2007/08 post-election violence in Kenya resulted in the displacement of an estimated 600 000 people. Current published research suggests that many of these internally displaced persons (IDPs) continue to have issues accessing basic needs, including food and water, impacting morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to assess food security and access to cooking fuel and water within an internally displaced persons’ (IDP) camp in Kenya. It was designed as a descriptive, qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with members of households residing in the IDP camp. Participants were recruited through respondent-driven sampling using a network of coupons. Semi-structured interviews were utilised to determine key issues associated with the attainment of food security, access to cooking fuel and water among resident IDPs, targeting male household heads. Interview structure was based on framework for assessment of food security provided by the International Federation of the Red Cross. Recorded interviews then underwent thematic analysis using NVivo 10 (QSR International, Melbourne, Victoria). A total of 15 semi-structured interviews were completed with men at the camp, aged between 18 and 53. Thematic analysis shows that key elicited concerns regarding food security included lack of capital for agriculture, lack of dietary diversity, seasonal insecurity and anxiety about the future. Access to water was limited to a single borehole located within the camp. Few reliable and safe sources could be identified for cooking fuel. Thus, internally displaced persons residing at this camp continue to experience significant food insecurity. Despite being allocated land for agriculture, they lack capital for investment in agriculture and access to local food markets. Access to water and cooking fuel is limited and a source of significant concern. Initiatives to improve food security delivered through government and non-government programs are necessary to minimise the significant impact of such food insecurity on mental health and disease profiles as reported in other IDP settings. Key words : Internally displaced persons, Kenya, Food security, Qualitative study, Nutrition

Violence and the Market for Food: Evidence from Kenya

We study the impact of post election violence in Kenya on the food market ain Mombasa and find empirical evidence against predictions of high volatility of prices following violence. Using a data set of flour producing firm, we identity the degree of persistence in prices and quantities by means of techniques based on the concept of long term memory or long range dependence. Prices are found to be highly persistent in both wheat and maize flour, with orders of integration which are around 1 or even above 1, implying permanent effect of the shocks. On the contrary, quantities, though also persistent, appear to be fractionally integrated, with orders of integration in the interval (0, 0.5) pointing towards stationarity, long term memory mean reverting behaviour. Violence is associated with an insignificant increase in prices of both products and a significant decrease in quantities.

Lionel Nichols, The International Criminal Court and the End of Impunity in KenyaSosteness Francis Materu, The Post-Election Violence in Kenya: Domestic and International Responses

Lionel Nichols, The International Criminal Court and the End of Impunity in KenyaSosteness Francis Materu, The Post-Election Violence in Kenya: Domestic and International Responses

Educational change following conflict: Challenges related to the implementation of a peace education programme in Kenya

Following the post-election violence in Kenya an attempt to bring about educational change through a peace education programme was launched by the MoE, UNICEF and UNHCR. The programme, which was aimed at building peace at the grassroots level, targeted the areas most affected by the post-election violence. Teaching plans were designed for all levels in primary school, and teachers and head teachers at schools in the Rift Valley were trained in the materials. Whereas the MoE assumed that the schools, having recently experienced the post-election violence, would have an innate motivation to implement the programme, this paper argues that the reality on the ground was more complicated. The formation and the implementation of the programme will be analysed from the perspective of policy makers and school populations. The paper argues that there are challenges related to additive and reactive peace education policies. Further, the paper argues that perceived relevance, school location, school leadership and perceived policy influenced the implementation processes on school level. In sum, the paper argues that the top-down approach taken when designing and implementing the programme led to less impact than the programme otherwise could have had, due to the lack of adjustment to local school contexts.