Kenya’s elections: the peace lobotomy?

Abstract:

This Africa Policy Brief looks at the Kenyan elections of 4 March 2013 and examines what lessons can be learned from them. The argument developed throughout this paper is that, although the violence was contained, the elections were not a success, because the drivers of conflict in Kenya remained untouched. The underlying reason being that the informal power of the political class still outweighed all the formal institutions and plans put in place. The ruling elite had acknowledged the drivers of conflict in Kenya for years but had shown very little interest in resolving them, because that would have influenced the drivers of their power.