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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:A Last Chance for Peaceful Change in Kenya?
Author:Kiai, MainaISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:Africa Today
Volume:45
Issue:2
Period:April-June
Pages:185-192
Language:English
Geographic term:Kenya
Subjects:political systems
democracy
Politics and Government
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/4187217
Abstract:The political space created by the reintroduction of multipartyism in Kenya in 1991 provided an opening for the emergence of a strong and well-organized civil society dedicated to civil rights, poverty alleviation and gender equality. However, KANU (Kenya African National Union) read its 1992 election victory as a mandate to continue to rule as it had during the one-party era - with widespread corruption, repression and abuses of human rights. Civil society, concluding that constitutional reform was a crucial first step in transforming Kenya from autocratic to democratic rule, spearheaded the quest for change. By late 1994 large-scale civic education campaigns via the Citizens Coalition for Constitutional Change (CCCC) had been launched. In 1997 the CCCC organized a National Convention Assembly which agreed a two-pronged strategy: a minimum agenda of reforms, to be implemented before the 1997 elections in efforts to ensure that the results were free and fair; and a maximum agenda for a comprehensive transformation of Kenya from a dictatorship to a democracy. The mass-action activities and rallies subsequently organized by the National Convention Executive Council (NCEC) across the country were brutally suppressed. The author, a founder and current executive director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, believes the onus is now on President Moi and the leaders of the opposition to ensure that Kenya does not descend into violence. Ref.
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