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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | Kenya's Opposition and the Crisis of Governance |
| Author: | Muigai, Githu |
| Year: | 1993 |
| Periodical: | Issue |
| Volume: | 21 |
| Issue: | 1-2 |
| Pages: | 26-34 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Kenya |
| Subjects: | opposition parties multiparty systems Politics and Government |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1166282 |
| Abstract: | This article examines the crisis of governance and legitimacy in Kenya in the context of the rise of opposition parties and the reemergence of multiparty competitive politics in the run up to the December 1992 elections. The widespread discontent that followed the 1988 elections translated into demand for the end of one-party rule and the reintroduction of plural politics. The KANU (Kenya African National Union) government refused to yield to this demand at first, and only after a long struggle was the way to multiparty politics opened in December 1991. However, no sooner had the parties been registered than it became clear that the problems of making multiparty politics viable were more difficult than had been envisaged. There were two categories of problems: problems created by the government and KANU in order to derail the democratic process (such as the lack of distinction between party and State, the politicization of the civil service, the bias of the KBC (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) in favour of KANU, KANU criminalization of politics, KANU constitutional manipulation, and government aid to ethnic clashes), and problems inherent in the nature of the opposition itself and Kenya politics generally. These include the fact that the opposition is composed of loose coalitions, the fact that Kenya has an extremely backward political culture, and the persistent accusations brought against the opposition on the issue of ethnicity. Ref. |
