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GIGA Research Programme: Violence, Power and Security

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Ethnic Coalitions of Convenience and Commitment: Political Parties and Party Systems in Kenya

Sebastian Elischer

N? 68

February 2008

giga-hamburg.de/workingpapers

GIGA WP 68/2008

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GIGA WP 68/2008

Ethnic Coalitions of Convenience and Commitment: Political Parties and Party Systems in Kenya

Abstract

This paper analyzes the role of ethnicity in shaping the character of Kenya's political parties and its party system since 1992. Drawing on a constructivist conception of ethnicity, it uses a framework of comparison derived from Donald Horowitz and distinguishes between three party types: the mono-ethnic party, the multi-ethnic alliance type and the multi-ethnic integrative type. It shows that although Kenyan parties have increasingly incorporated diverse communities, they have consistently failed to bridge the country's dominant ethnic cleavages. Consequently, all of Kenya's significant parties represent ethnic coalitions of convenience and commitment and, thus, ethnic parties. The paper further states that the country's post-2007 political environment is a by-product of the omnipresence of this party type.

Keywords: Social cleavages, ethnicity, political party identification, Kenya

Sebastian Elischer is a PhD student at Jacobs University Bremen and a doctoral fellow of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. He is an associated research fellow with the project "Managing Ethnic Conflict Through Institutional Engineering: Ethnic Party Bans in Africa" conducted at Jacobs University, the Universities of Duisburg-Essen and Darmstadt, and the GIGA. Contact: s.elischer@jacobs-university.de Website: jacobs-university.de/directory/selischer/index.php

Zusammenfassung

Der Einfluss von Ethnizit?t auf politische Parteien in Kenia

Afrikanische Parteien wurden in der Literatur nur sehr vereinzelt systematisch untersucht. Allerdings wird generell Ethnizit?t eine gro?e Bedeutung bei der Klassifizierung afrikanischer Parteien zugemessen. Die vorliegende Analyse best?tigt dies f?r Kenia. Auf der Grundlage von Donald Horowitz' Theorie ?ber politischen Wettbewerb in multiethnischen Gesellschaften werden in der Untersuchung des Einflusses von Ethnizit?t auf politische Parteien drei Parteitypen unterschieden: die monoethnische Partei, die multiethnische Allianz und die multiethnische integrative Partei. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass seit 1992 alle politisch signifikanten Parteien kurzlebige ethnische Koalitionen darstellen. Diese haben seit Einf?hrung des Mehrparteiensystems Konfliktlinien zwischen ethnischen Gruppen verst?rkt. Gewaltsame ethnische Konflikte, wie sie nach den Wahlen im Dezember 2007 zu beobachten waren, sind eine Folgeerscheinung dieser Koalitionen.

Ethnic Coalitions of Convenience and Commitment: Political Parties and Party Systems in Kenya

Sebastian Elischer

Article Outline 1 Introduction 2 Framework for Comparison: Ethnicity, Party Types and Indicators 3 Ethnicity and Political Parties in Kenya 4 Conclusion: Parties and Party Systems in Kenya

1

Introduction

The 2007 Kenyan elections provided one of the rare instances on the African continent where the outcome of both the presidential and parliamentary elections could not be anticipated and where a change of government was a realistic possibility (Bogaards 2003). Yet the aftermath represented a setback on the country's journey to democratic consolidation, something which many had already taken for granted after Kenya's first democratic and peaceful handover of power from one government to another in 2002. Violent clashes between the Kenyan police forces and opposition supporters as well as strong ethnic rhetoric by all major political players1 dramatically underlined the high salience of ethnicity in Kenyan politics. This study illustrates that these clashes and conflicts are a direct outcome of the particular type of party which is prevalent in Kenya. Accordingly, it pursues the following research question: Which type(s) of political parties exist in Kenya? Which type, if any, is prevalent in Kenya's party system? In order to arrive at answers, the study will initially outline a classifica-

1 Both President Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga accused each other of attempted genocide in various TV interviews. Kenya Television Network, January 2, 2008.

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