Martha Karua addresses a rally. She is Raila Odinga’s running mate in Kenya’s August 2022 elections.
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Martha Karua’s selection as a deputy presidential candidate has helped put gender equality on the Kenyan election agenda.
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That there is no clear favourite to win shows the campaigning has been relatively free and competitive.
Kenyans take to the streets in the capital, Nairobi, to call for peaceful August 2022 elections.
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Patronage politics, a history of violent conflict and high-stakes elections increase the risks of poll violence in Kenya.
Uhuru Kenyatta (centre) holds hands with opinion polls’ favourites, Deputy President William Ruto (left) and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
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Kenya’s ethnic-based politics often leads to electoral violence that hurts regional trade.
Kenyans protest rising food prices and call for urgent government action in Nairobi in May 2022.
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The economy has taken centre stage in Kenya’s 2022 elections, but political promises have fallen short of offering realistic solutions.
A Kenyan elections official registers a voter’s details.
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The presence of fringe presidential contenders is a marker of maturing democracies.
The Supreme Court of Kenya in Nairobi.
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The country’s courts have already exhibited a significant level of maturity in rulings touching on the executive.
Veteran Kenyan politician Raila Odinga is making his fifth stab at the presidency.
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Odinga is considered a master strategist, sometimes populist and excellent mobiliser.
William Ruto
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As an outlier in Kenya’s political power matrix, Ruto was elbowed out by the establishment. But he has somersaulted back by appealing directly to the masses.
Kenya’s first ever face-to-face presidential debate screened ahead of elections in 2013 won by Uhuru Kenyatta (on screen).
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Elites have strong incentives to foment violence. The way they speak about election issues in the media can inflame tensions.
Charles Njonjo, then Kenya’s Attorney General, hosts Helen Suzman of the Progressive Party in the South African parliament in Nairobi in 1971.
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The Kenya that Njonjo sought to create was the ‘greatest living example of democracy, justice and peace’ – but there was no space for the poor.
Nairobi senator Johnson Sakaja’s impromptu address in the streets of Nairobi is captured on smart phones.
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Twitter will be part of many Kenyan candidates’ campaign activities ahead of the August 2022 elections.
Law Society of Kenya official Mercy Wambua holds a placard at the Supreme Court in Nairobi after a protest over government disobedience of court orders.
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Constitutional amendments sought to make it easy for Kenyatta and Odinga to craft a broad tribal coalition against the deputy president.
President Mwai Kibaki holds up Kenya’s new constitution soon after promulgating it on August 27, 2010.
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The purpose of a constitutional dismemberment is to unmake and remake the constitution.
President Uhuru Kenyatta (centre), former opposition leader Raila Odinga (right), and Deputy President William Ruto launching the first Building Bridges Initiative report in 2019.
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The changes proposed by the initiative are were well-addressed in the country’s 2010 Constitution.
Students of St. George’s Girls’ Secondary School in Nairobi.
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Our findings suggest that it is time to take Kenyan youth seriously as politically important actors.
Former President Mwai Kibaki signs the new constitution in Nairobi in 2010 before former Attorney General Amos Wako.
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Kenya’s constitution-making process has exhibited a gyration pattern that often starts with a belief that governance reforms can rectify the country’s problems, but ends up as a power struggle.
Kenya’s founding president Jomo Kenyatta attends a ceremony in 1964 in Nairobi.
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Far from the myth of the omnipotent father of the nation, big man or dictator, the Kenyan presidential system was built on divisions and uncertainty.
Former President Mwai Kibaki [centre] smiles after being handed the new constitution document by former Attorney General, Amos Wako [right] in 2010.
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For democracy to work in Kenya the country needs good leadership. Politicians must uphold the constitution to infuse trust and confidence in state institutions.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (left), and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga
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The Building Bridges Initiative is best understood by recognising that Kenyan politics is fundamentally shaped by competition between political elites and their ethnic groups.