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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Political succession in Kenya: the transition from Kenyatta to Moi |
Author: | Ahluwalia, Davinder Pal Singh |
Year: | 1985 |
Periodical: | The African Review: A Journal of African Politics, Development and International Affairs |
Volume: | 12 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 1-17 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Kenya |
Subjects: | political conditions presidential elections 1970-1979 1980-1989 |
Abstract: | When Kenyatta died in August 1978, Daniel arap Moi, Vice-President, immediately assumed the presidency, and three months later successfully stood for presidential election. The attempted coup against the regime in 1982 suggested that the smooth succession had obscured a more troubled inheritance. This paper looks more closely at the succession and at succeeding events, and suggests that President Moi's difficulties in legitimizing and consolidating his rule were the product of an ongoing succession crisis which began prior to Kenyatta's death. Moi had to face opposition from Kenyatta's family; the Gikuyu, Embu, Meru Association (GEMA); the defunct opposition party, the Kenya Peoples Union (KPU); and the armed forces. A comparison of the composition of the Moi Cabinets of 1978, 1979 and 1982, shows that the consensus on which the Moi government had been based in 1978 had been greatly weakened, if not destroyed by 1982. App., notes, ref. |