Kenya: A Democracy in Distress

Author(s): Jeroen Mimpen
Publication date: Tuesday 13 May 2008

Kenya's eruption of violence focussed the world's attention on a country that until recently was known as an African example of democratic state development. But the 'unexpected' disturbances during the elections and the post-election procedures, denounced by concerned citizens and governments, have led to serious questions: how can Kenya's current political situation be explained? And, perhaps even more important, what actions can and should be undertaken by politicians and civil society actors to restore a stable democracy?

In an attempt to answer these and other questions Hivos and the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) have invited two representatives of Kenyan organisations working in the field of democratization to the Dutch Africaday of 19 April 2008. Focussing on the role of political parties, politicians and the Electoral Commission of Kenya, Ms. Njeri Kabeberi (Executive Director of the Centre for Multiparty Democracy in Kenya) presented a political perspective on the Kenyan crisis. From a civil society perspective Mr. Wambua Kawive (Chief Executive Officer of the Constitution and Reform Education Consortium) reflected upon the role of Civil Society Organisations, societal groups and the concept of citizenship. In doing so, the guest speakers as well as the participants were invited to engage in a debate on one of this years most important African developments. A report of this workshop.

The central questions for the workshop on the elections in Kenya were about the causes of the crisis and probable solutions for this crisis.

Kees Broere, the chair of this workshop, is a journalist for a Dutch newspaper in Kenya. He introduced the subject with a short anecdote on the current situation in Mombassa. He told about a meeting for foreign journalists, which was organized by the Kenyan Ministry for Tourism. Approximately 200 international journalist showed up. The meeting was organized to show the journalists that Kenya is safe again and that tourist can come. In January 2008 the situation was somewhat different. Back then, many journalists had fled out of Kenya, because of the riots between different tribes. After the intervention of the former Secretary-General of the UN, Kofi Annan, peace seems to have returned. However, in the week before the Africaday it became clear that there was no agreement between the two main political leaders, Kibaki and Odinga. So peace has not returned yet.

The two Kenyan experts for this meeting were Wambau Kawive, the Chief Executive Officer of the Constitution and Reform Education Consortium, and Njeri Kabeberi, the Executive Director of the Centre for Multiparty Democracy in Kenya.

Kabeberi started her introduction by stating that Kenya was an emergency-patient in the first months of this year, but that the conditions of the patient were now more stable, however, still not totally safe. The main problem of the elections were not the parties in Kenya, but the focus on the leaders of the party. The leaders of the two main-parties, Odinga, the leader of the main opposition-party and Kibaki, the president before the elections. Even before the elections both leaders were not very optimistic. They had already warned the electorate for riots between the tribes. So it was more or less a self-fulfilling prophecy.
An other problem is the electoral system in Kenya, which is not based on a simple majority system, but on a very complex system, in which a party has to reach a 25%-treshold in every province of Kenya to get the votes counted. Kenya has eight provinces, but the biggest tribe of Kenya, the Kikuyu tribe is settled in a few provinces. So the majority of the voters in Kenya are not able to get a majority in government. This led to misunderstanding by some of the Kikuyu-voters. Yet another problem was the chairman of the electoral committee who came too fast with the results of the elections, which were not yet complete oat that time. He caused a lot of trouble and unrest with the early publication of results.

The second expert, Mr Kawive, had another focus in his introduction. He emphasized more on the role of the civil society in this problem. People in Keyna do not trust the politicians so much. The civil organizations could play an important role in restoring this trust. They could also play an important role because the parties in Keyna are not really like Western parties, in that sense that they do not have real programs, which people vote for. The civil society organizations have also had a very important role in the design of the constitution. They should play that important role again, because the political situation was the main cause of the problems. So the politicians - responsible for those problems - cannot fix them. The gap between the politicians and the voters is simply too large. Like Kawive said: "freedom is like air, if you take it away, people will kick and choke". That is what the politicians did by scaring people and warning them for probable riots.

The conclusion of the meeting was other than political organizations should take their responsibility. Those organizations are e.g. the free press, civil society and the foreign companies. The electoral system and constitution could be reformed, but even more importnatn may be that the political and societal culture need to be changed. The normal people of Kenya should not listen too much to the politicians, but they should ask more. In that sense, the debate should not only be about leadership, but also about the role of followers.

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Related links:

www.nimd.org
www.hivos.nl
www.afrikadag.nl (in dutch)