Courting the Kalenjin: the failure of dynasticism and the strength of the ODM wave in Kenya's Rift Valley Province

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Periodical article

Title:	Courting the Kalenjin: the failure of dynasticism and the strength of the ODM wave in Kenya's Rift Valley Province
Author:	Lynch, Gabrielle
Year:	2008
Periodical:	African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:	107
Issue:	429
Pages:	541-568
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	Kalenjin opposition parties elections 2007
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/27667069
Abstract:	This article explains the strength of the 'ODM wave' in the 2007 elections in Kenya and the popular rejection of Daniel arap Moi's call to re-elect President Mwai Kibaki across the Kalenjin areas of the Rift Valley. It examines the election campaigns, voting patterns, and aftermath of the contested election, and reveals why most Kalenjin dismissed Moi's pleas as self-interested and were instead drawn towards the pledges and leadership of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). The article discusses how a strongly ethnicized discourse of 'persecution' and 'bias' was interwoven with narratives of past and potential 'injustice', leading to the vilification of the Kibaki regime and the casting of ODM as the vehicle of 'meaningful change'. In addition, it argues that local understandings and interpretations of the past and present provide the relevant context for understanding subsequent violence and attacks on the Kikuyu community. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]