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| Title: | Weapons of mass destruction: land, ethnicity and the 2007 elections in Kenya |
| Authors: | Rutten, Marcel Owuor, Sam |
| Book title: | Kenya's uncertain democracy: the electoral crisis of 2008 |
| Year: | 2010 |
| Pages: | 46-65 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Kenya |
| Subjects: | political violence elections 2007 political history |
| Abstract: | The 2007 election violence in Kenya has been described as an ethnic conflict between two of the largest tribal opposing factions - the Kikuyu and the Luo. However, the situation in a multi-ethnic country like Kenya could prove to be more complicated. This chapter argues that the 2007 election violence has deep historical roots. It outlines ethnic relations and conflicts over land in the precolonial period, the colonial period, the Kenyatta era (1963-1978), the Moi single party era (1978-1992), the Moi multiparty era (1992-2002) and the Kibaki era (2002-2007). Focusing on the 2007 election violence, it discusses the 2002 Kibaki-Odinga marriage and divorce, the 2007 election campaigns, spontaneous protests and violence after the contested presidential election results, more organized post-election revenge attacks, and 'State' violence. It shows that the political turmoil that erupted after the 2007 elections was not the first case of this kind of violence in Kenya. However, election-related violence has become more manifest since the reintroduction of multiparty politics in 1992. The 2007 election might have been the crossroads for ordinary Kenyans turning away from democracy and elections in particular. [ASC Leiden abstract] |