Sub Saharan Africa

Kenya
Last reviewed: 21 April 2009

Country information

See entire profile

POLITICS

President Moi stepped down in 2002, as required by the 1991 constitution. Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Jomo, Kenya's first President, secured the leadership of KANU and stood for the Presidency, but a group of MPs broke with KANU to form the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). For the first time, all the opposition parties united under the banner of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) and behind a single presidential candidate. President Kibaki's general election victory on 27 December 2002 ended nearly 40 years of KANU rule. The elections were the cleanest and most peaceful in Kenya's history and were followed by a smooth transfer of power to NARC. President Kibaki secured 62% of the popular vote and NARC won 132 seats in the unicameral parliament of 222 seats.

But the first years of NARC's rule proved difficult due to the fracturing of the NARC coalition, especially over completion of the constitutional review process started under Moi. A lengthy public consultation process produced a new draft constitution (known as the Bomas draft) in March 2004. But its provisions, notably those reducing the executive powers of the Presidency, proved unacceptable to the government. After a protracted legal wrangle the government secured Parliamentary approval for certain key amendments to be made and a new Constitution Bill was published. However, the new draft was rejected by 58% of voters when it was put to a referendum in November 2005. This prompted Kibaki to sack his entire government and start with a new team which excluded all those Ministers who voted against the draft. Those who voted against the draft formed a new political party, ODM-Kenya. Progress in tackling corruption has also been disappointing. Corruption re-emerged as a major public concern in mid-2004 and represents a major threat to achieving social and economic reform. Three senior ministers were prevailed upon to stand aside, following their implication in grand corruption in February 2006 but two were re-appointed.

In the run-up to the December 2007 general election, the 2 main parties reformed into large coalitions. In August 2007, Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya – formed after the November 2005 referendum - split into the larger Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) led by Raila Odinga, and the smaller Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya, led by Kalonzo Musyoka. In September the ruling party NARC-Kenya became the Party of National Unity. The election proved to be the closest – and most bitterly - fought in the multi-party era. Initial reports were that the 28 December poll was largely free and fair. The ODM coalition took the largest number of Parliamentary seats, and official exit polls pointed to a win by the opposition Presidential candidate Raila Odinga (ODM). But a delay in announcing the Presidential contest raised doubts about the overall conduct of the election. Despite growing concerns, on 30 December 2007 the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) announced that the incumbent Mwai Kibaki had won the Presidential race by a margin of 231,728 votes.

The opposition candidate Raila Odinga rejected the result outright. The Chair of the ECK, Samuel Kivuitu has since stated that he made the announcement of Kibaki’s win ‘under duress’. The European Union Election Observer Mission noted that the presidential elections lack credibility, and fell short of international standards. Kibaki’s re-election was met with serious communal violence – especially between rival ethnic groups - and a strong response by government security forces; over 1,100 people have been reported killed, and an estimated 600,000 people displaced. Kofi Annan was asked by the African Union to lead a panel of Eminent African Personalities to help negotiate a power-sharing deal between Odinga and Kibaki. An agreement was signed on 28 February 2008, which was welcomed by the international community. On 17 April a 42 -strong Grand Coalition Cabinet with Raila Odinga as Prime Minister was sworn-in. The Kofi Annan mediation process recommended that a number of reforms be undertaken to prevent contentious elections in the future and to deal with the underlying reasons behind the post-election violence. Despite some early progress with the establishment of independent commissions that investigated the election process and the post-election violence, there is concern about the pace of reform.

BBC News Country Profile: Kenya
BBC News: Africa

HUMAN RIGHTS

The report of the independent Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence (CIPEV), published on 15 October 2008, detailed violence that was both spontaneous and planned against individuals targeted because of their ethnicity and/or political beliefs. The Kenyan police were heavily criticised for failing to anticipate, prepare for, or contain the violence and for using excessive force to suppress demonstrations. The Commission stated that individual members of the Kenyan police had committed serious human rights violations.The report of the UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston on extrajudicial killings, published in February 2009, provided further evidence of the necessity for urgent reform of Kenya’s justice and security architecture. The full report is expected in June 2009.