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How Electoral Reform Can Help Remove an Ethnic Focus in Political Competitions in Kenya Carliann Brashier Claremont Mckenna College

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How Electoral Reform Can Help Remove an Ethnic Focus in Political Competitions in Kenya Carliann Brashier Claremont Mckenna College Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2011 Changing Incentives: How Electoral Reform Can Help Remove an Ethnic Focus in Political Competitions in Kenya Carliann Brashier Claremont McKenna College Recommended Citation Brashier, Carliann, "Changing Incentives: How Electoral Reform Can Help Remove an Ethnic Focus in Political Competitions in Kenya" (2011). CMC Senior Theses. Paper 186. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/186 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CLAREMONT McKENNA COLLEGE CHANGING INCENTIVES: HOW ELECTORAL REFORM CAN HELP REMOVE AN ETHNIC FOCUS IN POLITICAL COMPETITIONS IN KENYA SUBMITTED TO PROFESSOR EDWARD HALEY AND DEAN GREGORY HESS BY CARLIANN BRASHIER FOR SENIOR THESIS SPRING 2011 APRIL 25, 2011 “As a writer once put it, we feel more at ease discussing other people’s tribalism and not our own. And that is the problem in Kenya today.” -Walter O. Oyugi Acknowledgements I would like to thank my reader and advisor, Professor Haley, for pushing me in my writing these past four years. This thesis would not have been possible without his support to pursue my interests in East Africa. I would like to thank my mother for her never ending encouragement and countless hours reading through my work. Only a mother would have the patience to read a ninety page paper numerous times. Finally, I would like to thank my friends for reminding me to laugh on a daily basis. I have learned a great deal these past four years but none of it would matter if I did not have my friends by my side to help me enjoy the process along the way. Table of Contents Acronyms .................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 2 Chapter 1: First-Past-The-Post ................................................................................. 22 Section A- Colonialism: Majimboism and Land ........................................... 22 Section B- Zero-Sum Mentality.................................................................... 26 Section C- Reform Options .......................................................................... 27 Parliamentary Electoral Reform Options ........................................... 28 Presidential Electoral Reform Options .............................................. 30 Section D- Recommendations ...................................................................... 31 Parliamentary Electoral Reform Recommendations .......................... 32 Presidential Electoral Reform Recommendations.............................. 36 Chapter 2: Political Parties and Campaigning .......................................................... 37 Section A- Independence and Post-Colonialism ........................................... 39 Parties for Independence ................................................................... 39 The Emergence of Political Coalitions .............................................. 42 The Institutionalized Fear and Ethnicity............................................ 44 Section B- Kenya against the Kikuyu ........................................................... 45 Ethnic Campaigning ......................................................................... 45 Code of Conduct............................................................................... 50 Section C- Reform Options .......................................................................... 52 Inciting Division ............................................................................... 54 Institutional Enforcement ................................................................. 55 Section D- Recommendations ...................................................................... 56 Inciting Division ............................................................................... 57 Institutional Enforcement ................................................................. 59 Changing the Incentives System: Common Interests ......................... 60 Chapter 3: The Electoral Commission of Kenya ...................................................... 62 Section A- ECK and the Constitution ........................................................... 63 Section B- The Election: Where Was the ECK? ........................................... 65 Section C- Reform Options .......................................................................... 70 Institutional Independence ................................................................ 70 Management and Implementation ..................................................... 71 The Media and Information .............................................................. 74 Disputed Elections ............................................................................ 75 Section D- Recommendations ...................................................................... 76 Institutional Independence ................................................................ 77 Management and Implementation ..................................................... 80 The Media and Information .............................................................. 84 Disputed Elections ............................................................................ 86 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 90 Appendices .............................................................................................................. 98 Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 104 1 List of Acronyms ECK Electoral Commission of Kenya FPTP First-Past-The-Post IPPG Inter-Parties Parliamentary Group IREC Independent Review Commission KADU Kenyan African Democratic Party KANU Kenyan African National Union KBC Kenya Broadcasting Corporation LCD Lesotho Congress of Democracy LDP Liberal Democratic Party MCK Media Council of Kenya MMP Mixed-Member Proportional Representation MPs Members of Parliament NAK National Alliance Party of Kenya NARC National Alliance Rainbow Coalition NGO Non-governmental Organizations ODM Orange Democratic Movement ODM-K Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya PPA Political Parties Act PNU Party of National Unity PR Proportional Representation UNDP United Nations Development Programme 2 Introduction Prior to the presidential elections in December 2007, Kenya was viewed as one of the few politically stable and economically prosperous countries in Africa, a paradigm for other African countries to emulate. At least this was the view held widely in the Western world. Missing in this analysis were the growing ethnic tensions which, although not new to Kenya (the precedence was established during the colonial era), had grown increasingly volatile during the past two decades. The 2007 election results revealed even sharper bitterness and divisions among Kenyans: “A day after President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of a second term, people who have lived as neighbors for decades in the Nairobi enclave began speaking of two Kenyas, one for the Kikuyu, Kibaki's tribe, and one for Luos and other ethnic groups loyal to opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says the vote was rigged.”1 Ethnic lines were clearly delineated and the country experienced two months of violence that left more than 1,000 people dead and 300,000 people homeless.2 Much of the period leading up to the election was politically charged by ethnic hostilities as opposition leader Raila Odinga‟s supporters accused incumbent Kibaki of ethnic favoritism towards his Kikuyu community.3 It is important to note that the Kikuyu not only constitute the largest ethnic group in Kenya, but have dominated Kenya‟s political scene since the country gained independence from Great Britain in 1963.4 While Kibaki and Odinga reached a tenuous power-sharing agreement on February 28, 2008, the election left a coalition government and an elevated level of 1 Stephanie McCrummen, “Ethnic Fault Lines Emerge in Kenya‟s Post-Election Turmoil,” Washington Post, January 1, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2007/12/31/AR2007123100539.html (accessed December 6, 2010). 2 Alert, Spring 2008, Vol. 11 No. 7, pg. 6. 3 “Ethnic Fault Lines.” 4 Ibid. 3 concern regarding prevailing ethnic hostilities. One has to ask, would a sense of civic nationalism have averted the riots and the subsequent human and economic fallout? With ethnic identification increasingly becoming a polarizing force in political competitions in Kenya, it is in the best interest of the Kenyan government to reform its electoral policies and procedures to generate a change in incentives which promote civic nationalism as a way to counter the negative aspects of an ethnically diverse nation. Changes must be made in three key areas of the current electoral system: Changing the current voting system of first-past-the-post (FPTP) to a closed list Proportional Representation (PR) system in parliamentary elections and to a two- round system for presidential elections Redefining and creating mechanisms for developing and enforcing better rules for political parties and campaigning Reforming the Electoral Commission of Kenya
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