The Kenyan Elections of 2007: An Introduction

Abstract

The importance of the Kenya crisis for the African continent is not that Kenya may become ‘another Rwanda’, but that it reveals how fragile Africa's new multi-party systems may be when weak institutions, historical grievances, the normalization of violence, and a lack of elite consensus on the ‘rules of the game’, collide. This paper provides an overview of the election campaign and the results, highlighting the major areas of continuity and change with Kenya's recent past, and identifying the key dynamics within the presidential and parliamentary contests. In doing so, it focuses on the ongoing process of coalition-building that underpinned both the rise and fall of NaRC and the emergence of Odinga as a major political player. I suggest that an appreciation of the difficulties of coalition building central to understanding the campaign and the results, and will be key to any long-term resolution of the Kenya crisis.