Political Economy of Kenya & the 2017 General Elections

Abstract

n 2017, Kenya held two presidential elections in succession after the new apex court, the Supreme Court, annulled the August 2017 presidential results in which the incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner. The main opponent, Raila Odinga, declined to participate in a fresh poll. Violent protests spread with supporters of Raila Odinga demanding his inauguration. On January 30, 2018, they swore him to ‘office’ as a ‘People’s President’. This event deepened the existing ethno-political divisions and aroused more violence. However, on March 9, 2018, both President Kenyatta and Raila Odinga publicly agreed to ‘build bridges’. The ‘handshake’ aroused new dynamics including weakening of the their respective political parties. This paper discusses Kenya’s political economy and its implications for the 2017 electoral competition. The paper shows the centrality of ethnic based relations and how this combines with elite bargains to influence major political processes and governance in general. The discussion also points out that Kenya’s ‘winner takes all’ politics drives cut-throat competition because those who lose, and their communities, are excluded from new power arrangements. Elites, therefore, enter into new bargains to address challenges of exclusion. How the elites shape these bargains has the potential to limit or exacerbate violence. Note analyse 9 - Mars 2019 5