By this author

CHANGE OR CONTINUITY? POLITICAL TRANSITIONS AND DEMOCRACY IN KENYA

Issue 3 from 01.03.2015

This article attempts to investigate and analyze challenges and prospects facing Kenya in its quest for democratization and construction of a viable state and cohesive society. Kenya before the post-2007 general election was viewed as an oasis of peace in a turbulent region, a situation that was enabled by stalled political transitions that never before turned to widespread violence.Transitional politics in Kenya have been deeply polarized along regional and more prominently ethnic lines. The questions this article is seeking to investigate are: what impact has the political systems and the civil society had in promoting the values of compromise conciliation, consensus building and tolerance in an ethnically polarized society. Has the civil society been partisan or neutral to ethnic interests? How and when do civil societies become engaged in politics? Can it be an integrative force in nation (state) building?

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