Governing Kenya

Download or read book Majimbo in Kenya's Past written by Robert M. Maxon and published by Cambria African Studies. This book was released on 2017 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advocacy for federalism in Kenya emerged amidst World War II and its aftermath. The rapidly changing political, economic, and social environment in Great Britain and British colonies in Africa formed the background for uncertainty and concern for the future among Kenya's European settler minority. Federalism's appeal came forth among a portion of the European community and some of the colonial rulers who were concerned about a post-war world that seemed certain to bring far reaching changes in Britain's most important East African dependency. These included democratization, the extension of civil liberties, increased economic opportunities for the African majority, and social integration leading to eventual decolonization. European anxiety as to the impact of such changes on their privileged political, economic and social status produced advocacy for majimbo or a federal system of governance between 1940 and 1960. This advocacy for federalism emerged in a colonial political system defined by a racially differentiated electorate with separate representative systems and voting by racially defined groups. The European minority in Kenya enjoyed pride of place in 1945, but demands for greater political participation from the larger Asian and African communities and the British government's support for a sharing of power among Kenya's racial group placed Kenya's Europeans on the defensive. The declaration of a state of Emergency in Kenya in October 1952 and the outbreak of the Mau Mau war/rebellion added to European concerns and uncertainties that provided powerful fuel for federalist ideas throughout the rest of the decade. For example, the political reforms pushed by the British government and the colonial state in response to the war/rebellion provoked enhanced calls for federalism among the vocal minority among the European community. Federalism remains a controversial topic in Kenyan history and in contemporary Kenya. In the current century, federal advocacy has been viewed by scholars and public as responsible for outbreaks of pre- and post-election violence. The movers and motives of federal advocates is also a subject that provokes strong opinions as they have often been viewed as racists or tribalists. It is thus important to examine and analyze the movers of majimbo, their motives, the shape and substance of their schemes, and the reasons for their lack of success in moving late colonial Kenya to adopt a federal system. This book demonstrates that the decade of the 1950s was the high water point for federalism in Kenyan history. Finally, it is critical to closely review that decade's federalist advocacy in light of Kenya's adoption of a federal scheme of governance with the 2010 constitution. This is the first detailed study of federalism in Kenya during the 1940s and 1950s that provides important grounding and background for the understanding of the later emergence of majimbo in the independence era (1961-1963) and later. The book identifies the movers of federalism during the period of study as well as providing in-depth analysis of the political parties they used to promote provincial autonomy and evolution plans. These include the Federal Independence Party, the Progressive Local Government Party, and the United Party. The analysis reveals that the movers backed majimbo as a defensive mechanism. They hoped it would serve as a means of protecting and perpetuating white privilege in terms of political dominance, segregated schools and public facilities, and, most of all, exclusive European control of a large portion of the colony's productive farm land, the white highlands. Majimbo in Kenya's Past is an important book for African studies, history, and politics.

Download or read book Governing Kenya written by Gedion Onyango and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-04-15 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is authored by some of the renowned scholars in Africa who take on the task to understand how Kenya is governed in this century from a public policy perspective. The book’s public policy approach addresses three general and pertinent questions: (1) how are policies made in a political context where change is called for, but institutional legacies tend to stand in the way? (2) how are power and authority shared among institutional actors in government and society? and, (3) how effective is policymaking at a time when policy problems are becoming increasingly complex and involving multiple stakeholders in Africa? This book provides an updated and relevant foundation for teaching policy, politics and administration in Kenya. It is also a useful guide for politicians, the civil society, and businesses with an interest in how Kenya is governed. Furthermore, it addresses issues of comparability: how does the Kenyan case fit into a wider African context of policymaking? ‘This volume is a major contribution to comparative policy analysis by focusing on the policy processes in Kenya, a country undergoing modernization of its economic and political institutions. Written by experts with a keen eye for the commonalities and differences the country shares with other nations, it covers a range of topics like the role of experts and politicians in policymaking, the nature of public accountability, the impact of social media on policy actors, and the challenges of teaching policy studies in the country. As a first comprehensive study of an African nation, Governing Kenya will remain a key text for years to come’. —Michael Howlett, Burnaby Mountain Chair of Political Science, Simon Fraser University, Canada ‘A superb example of development scholarship which sets aside ‘best practice’ nostrums and focuses on governance challenges specific to time and place while holding on to a comparative perspective. Useful to scholars and practitioners not only in Kenya but across developing areas. I strongly recommend it!’ —Brian Levy teaches at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, USA, and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. ‘This book is an exploration of important deliberations - of interest for those of us interested in deepening the understanding of public policy theories and their application within a specific African setting’. —Wilson Muna, Lecturer of Public Policy, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya ‘This collection of think pieces on public policy in Kenya gives the reader theoretical and practical hooks critical to the analysis of the implementation of the sovereign policy document in Kenya, the 2010 Constitution’. —Willy Mutunga, Chief Justice & President of the Supreme Court, Republic of Kenya, 2011-2016 ‘Governing Kenya provides a comprehensive analysis of public policymaking in Kenya. The book integrates public policy theory with extensive empirical examples to provide a valuable portrait of the political and economic influences on policy choices in this important African country. The editors have brought together a group of significant scholars to produce an invaluable contribution to the literature on public policy in Africa’. —B. Guy Peters, Maurice Folk Professor of American Government, University of Pittsburgh, USA

Download or read book Kenya written by Charles Hornsby and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 1102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since independence from Great Britain in 1963, Kenya has survived five decades as a functioning nation-state, holding regular elections; its borders and political system intact and avoiding open war with its neighbours and military rule internally. It has been a favoured site for Western aid, trade, investment and tourism and has remained a close security partner for Western governments. However, Kenya's successive governments have failed to achieve adequate living conditions for most of its citizens; violence, corruption and tribalism have been ever-present, and its politics have failed to transcend its history. The decisions of the early years of independence and the acts of its leaders in the decades since have changed the country's path in unpredictable ways, but key themes of conflicts remain: over land, money, power, economic policy, national autonomy and the distribution of resources between classes and communities.While the country's political institutions have remained stable, the nation has changed, its population increasing nearly five-fold in five decades. But the economic and political elite's struggle for state resources and the exploitation of ethnicity for political purposes still threaten the country's existence. Today, Kenyans are arguing over many of the issues that divided them 50 years ago. The new constitution promulgated in 2010 provides an opportunity for national renewal, but it must confront a heavy legacy of history. This book reveals that history.

Download or read book Conservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage in Kenya written by Anne-Marie Deisser and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2016-10-07 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Kenya, cultural and natural heritage has a particular value. Its pre-historic heritage not only tells the story of man's origin and evolution but has also contributed to the understanding of the earth's history: fossils and artefacts spanning over 27 million years have been discovered and conserved by the National Museums of Kenya (NMK). Alongside this, the steady rise in the market value of African art has also affected Kenya. Demand for African tribal art has surpassed that for antiquities of Roman, Byzantine, and Egyptian origin, and in African countries currently experiencing conflicts, this activity invariably attracts looters, traffickers and criminal networks. This book brings together essays by heritage experts from different backgrounds, including conservation, heritage management, museum studies, archaeology, environment and social sciences, architecture and landscape, geography, philosophy and economics to explore three key themes: the underlying ethics, practices and legal issues of heritage conservation; the exploration of architectural and urban heritage of Nairobi; and the natural heritage, landscapes and sacred sites in relation to local Kenyan communities and tourism. It thus provides an overview of conservation practices in Kenya from 2000 to 2015 and highlights the role of natural and cultural heritage as a key factor of social-economic development, and as a potential instrument for conflict resolution

Download or read book Kenya written by Shadrack W. Nasong'o and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The path towards democracy in Kenya has been long and often tortuous. Though it has been trumpeted as a goal for decades, democratic government has never been fully realised, largely as a result of the authoritarian excesses of the Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki regimes. This uniquely comprehensive study of Kenya's political trajectory shows how the struggle for democracy has been waged in civil society, through opposition parties, and amongst traditionally marginalised groups like women and the young. It also considers the remaining impediments to democratisation, in the form of a powerful police force and damaging structural adjustment policies. Thus, the authors argue, democratisation in Kenya is a laborious and non-linear process. Kenyans' recent electoral successes, the book concludes, have empowered them and reinvigorated the prospects for democracy, heralding a more autonomous and peaceful twenty-first century.

Download or read book Kenya written by Daniel Branch and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On December 12, 1963, people across Kenya joyfully celebrated independence from British colonial rule, anticipating a bright future of prosperity and social justice. As the nation approaches the fiftieth anniversary of its independence, however, the people's dream remains elusive. During its first five decades Kenya has experienced assassinations, riots, coup attempts, ethnic violence, and political corruption. The ranks of the disaffected, the unemployed, and the poor have multiplied. In this authoritative and insightful account of Kenya's history from 1963 to the present day, Daniel Branch sheds new light on the nation's struggles and the complicated causes behind them.Branch describes how Kenya constructed itself as a state and how ethnicity has proved a powerful force in national politics from the start, as have disorder and violence. He explores such divisive political issues as the needs of the landless poor, international relations with Britain and with the Cold War superpowers, and the direction of economic development. Tracing an escalation of government corruption over time, the author brings his discussion to the present, paying particular attention to the rigged election of 2007, the subsequent compromise government, and Kenya's prospects as a still-evolving independent state.

Download or read book Indians in Kenya written by Sana Aiyar and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-06 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Working as merchants, skilled tradesmen, clerks, lawyers, and journalists, Indians formed the economic and administrative middle class in colonial Kenya. In general, they were wealthier than Africans, but were denied the political and economic privileges that Europeans enjoyed. Moreover, despite their relative prosperity, Indians were precariously positioned in Kenya. Africans usually viewed them as outsiders, and Europeans largely considered them subservient. Indians demanded recognition on their own terms. Indians in Kenya chronicles the competing, often contradictory, strategies by which the South Asian diaspora sought a political voice in Kenya from the beginning of colonial rule in the late 1890s to independence in the 1960s. Indians’ intellectual, economic, and political connections with South Asia shaped their understanding of their lives in Kenya. Sana Aiyar investigates how the many strands of Indians’ diasporic identity influenced Kenya’s political leadership, from claiming partnership with Europeans in their mission to colonize and “civilize” East Africa to successful collaborations with Africans to battle for racial equality, including during the Mau Mau Rebellion. She also explores how the hierarchical structures of colonial governance, the material inequalities between Indians and Africans, and the racialized political discourses that flourished in both colonial and postcolonial Kenya limited the success of alliances across racial and class lines. Aiyar demonstrates that only by examining the ties that bound Indians to worlds on both sides of the Indian Ocean can we understand how Kenya came to terms with its South Asian minority.