Africana Periodical Literature 
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| Title: | Patrons, clients, and constitutions: ethnic politics and political reform in Kenya |
| Authors: | Berman, Bruce J. Cottrell, Jill Ghai, Yash |
| Year: | 2009 |
| Periodical: | Canadian Journal of African Studies |
| Volume: | 43 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Pages: | 462-506 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Kenya |
| Subjects: | constitutional reform ethnicity patronage political change |
| External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00083968.2010.9707567 |
| Abstract: | The euphoria that followed the 2002 elections in Kenya and the end of the increasingly authoritarian regime of Daniel arap Moi, soon dissipated as the regime of Mwai Kibaki slid into the business as usual of corruption, patronage and cronyism of politics in Africa's most strongly articulated informal system of ethnic-based patronage, one that originated in the colonial period and was refined and extended under the Kenyatta and Moi regimes. Kibaki's government dragged its heels on promised constitutional reforms. Even though the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission (CKRC) attempted a nation-wide consultative process and produced a popular 'people's' constitution in the 'Bomas' draft, the politicians co-opted the process with a revised draft shaped by ethnic interests and conflicts that was rejected in the fiercely contested referendum of November 2005 and split the ruling coalition, defining the bitter cleavages that dominated the 2007 election and erupted in the widespread violence that followed. To understand the power of 'business as usual' in Kenyan politics requires an analysis of the real political system in the country, the complex interplay of ethnicity and class within it, their connection to the formal institutions of the State, and the struggles of moral economy at both communal and national levels. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |
