![]() ![]() The handshake in March 2018 between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his political opponent and former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, was intended to signal an end to the acrimony which followed the 2017 presidential elections. This article summarises current political dynamics, and identifies conflict drivers and trends – old and new – as Kenya prepares to go to the polls in 2022 general election.īuilding Bridges Initiative: a catalyst for shifting political alliances and divisions Indeed, there are growing fears that, unless the current political discourse is toned down and the nature of electoral processes re-imagined, Kenya will once again descend into violence in the run-up to next year’s elections. It may be that the new political dynamics will prove just as divisive and destructive as what came before. Whether this ushers in a new and less violent form of politics remains to be seen. ![]() As in so many countries around the world, this has been driven in part by the experience of COVID and the restrictions on people’s lives that have come with the pandemic, which have exacerbated and highlighted inequalities among Kenya’s citizens. ![]() In the absence of parties based on a consistent political ideology, the instrumentalisation of tribal identities and manipulation of ethnic grievances remain the primary basis of political mobilisation, with the threat of violence – and often its use – hanging over every election cycle.Īs Kenya prepares for the 2022 general elections, there are some signs that the ethnicised political discourse and its underlying drivers are changing. This continues to characterise Kenya’s electoral landscape today. The advent of multi-party democracy in Kenya in 1992 led to the ethnicisation of politics, with parties coalescing around tribal power-brokers and an ever-changing political landscape as inter-ethnic alliances were formed and fell apart. The months leading up to, and after, elections have been the most violent periods in Kenya’s post-independence history, with thousands killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in election cycles since 2007. Kenya’s next general elections are not scheduled to take place until 12 months from now in August 2022 – yet even a year ago the race to be the country’s next President was hotting up. As Kenya prepares for general elections in 2022, Emmy Auma and Ivan Campbell explore the conflict drivers and trends and look at current political dynamics within Kenya. ![]()
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