Violence and Politics in Kenya’s Uncivil Society
David Anderson: The African Studies Centre, Oxford University, UK
The post-electoral violence of January and February 2008 alerted the world to the fragility of Kenya’s transition to multi-party democracy. This lecture will survey the main events in Kenya’s politics since the settlement arbitrated by Kofi Annan, putting in place a ‘grand coalition’ government under Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga. It will be demonstrated that this has halted Kenya’s transition to democracy, replacing it with a system of competitive authoritarianism in which the ability to mobilize violence is the key determinant of political participation. The evolution of ‘gang culture’ will be described, including the most recent violence that has seen the police and apparently independent ‘community militias’ mount a systematic assault upon the criminal network known as Mungiki. The lecture will also consider the issues of extrajudicial killings, the rule of law, and the culture of impunity.
Venue: NAI, Kungsgatan 38, Uppsala
David Anderson is Professor in African Politics and Director of the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. He researches and writes on the history and politics of eastern Africa. His publications include Histories of the Hanged: Britain’s Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire (2005), and Eroding the Commons (2002). He has recently completed a study of Violence and Politics in Kenya. His current projects include a collection of essays on Ethnic Claims and Moral Economies, to be published in 2010, and a study of the Cold War in Africa, planned for 2011. He is editor of the Journal of Eastern African Studies.
All interested are welcome.
Discussant: Shailja Patel, Kenyan poet, playwright, and political activist, and currently Guest Writer at the Nordic Africa Institute.
Chair: Knut Myhre, Research Fellow,The Nordic Africa Institute
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