Citizenship amid economic and political change in Kenya

Africa Today

Volumn 45, Issue 3-4, 1998, Pages 351-368

  Ndegwa, Stephen N ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0032263056     PISSN: 00019887     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (42)

1. Kidane Mengisteab and Ikubolajeh Logan, eds., Beyond Economic Liberalization in Africa: Structural Adjustment and Alternatives (London: Zed Books, 1995); Julius Nyang'oro and Timothy Shaw, eds., Beyond Structural Adjustment in Africa: The Political Economy of Sustainable and Democratic Development (Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 1992); Lual Deng, Markus Kostner, and Crawford Young, eds., Demoralization and Structural Adjustment in Africa in the 1990s (Madison: University of Wisconsin African Studies Program, 1991); United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Economic Reform in Africa's New Era of Political Liberalization: Proceedings of a Workshop for SPA Donors (Washington, D.C.: USAID, 1993).
2. Kidane Mengisteab and Ikubolajeh Logan, eds., Beyond Economic Liberalization in Africa: Structural Adjustment and Alternatives (London: Zed Books, 1995); Julius Nyang'oro and Timothy Shaw, eds., Beyond Structural Adjustment in Africa: The Political Economy of Sustainable and Democratic Development (Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 1992); Lual Deng, Markus Kostner, and Crawford Young, eds., Demoralization and Structural Adjustment in Africa in the 1990s (Madison: University of Wisconsin African Studies Program, 1991); United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Economic Reform in Africa's New Era of Political Liberalization: Proceedings of a Workshop for SPA Donors (Washington, D.C.: USAID, 1993).
3. Kidane Mengisteab and Ikubolajeh Logan, eds., Beyond Economic Liberalization in Africa: Structural Adjustment and Alternatives (London: Zed Books, 1995); Julius Nyang'oro and Timothy Shaw, eds., Beyond Structural Adjustment in Africa: The Political Economy of Sustainable and Democratic Development (Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 1992); Lual Deng, Markus Kostner, and Crawford Young, eds., Demoralization and Structural Adjustment in Africa in the 1990s (Madison: University of Wisconsin African Studies Program, 1991); United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Economic Reform in Africa's New Era of Political Liberalization: Proceedings of a Workshop for SPA Donors (Washington, D.C.: USAID, 1993).
4. Kidane Mengisteab and Ikubolajeh Logan, eds., Beyond Economic Liberalization in Africa: Structural Adjustment and Alternatives (London: Zed Books, 1995); Julius Nyang'oro and Timothy Shaw, eds., Beyond Structural Adjustment in Africa: The Political Economy of Sustainable and Democratic Development (Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 1992); Lual Deng, Markus Kostner, and Crawford Young, eds., Demoralization and Structural Adjustment in Africa in the 1990s (Madison: University of Wisconsin African Studies Program, 1991); United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Economic Reform in Africa's New Era of Political Liberalization: Proceedings of a Workshop for SPA Donors (Washington, D.C.: USAID, 1993).
5. T. H. Marshall, Class, Citizenship and Social Development: Essays (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Co., 1964). It is important to point out that independence simply witnessed a transfer of rights from an imperial ruling class to one that was indigenous. Thus even though the struggle for independence also found expression in society, citizenship rights were acquired solely by a ruling class rather than by the population as a whole.
6. Joe Foweraker and Todd Landman, Citizenship Rights and Social Movements: A Comparative and Statistical Analysis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
7. Ibid., p. 4.
8. Ibid., p. 7.
9. Mahmood Mamdani, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996).
10. In reality, a similar danger persists in that the current rights movement is largely driven by urban classes whose social, economic, and political rights have been adversely affected by the dominance of the state and by the state's implementation of structural adjustment programs. As a result, urban rights activists are pushing for a reconfiguration of the economy and enlisting the support of the rural masses to reconstitute political relations. The possibility of a superficial transformation is real, especially when one considers the hurried manner in which administrative, legal, and constitutional reforms were hammered out among members of Parliament without any input from civil society.
11. Stephen Ndegwa, "Citizenship and Ethnicity: An Examination of Two Transition Moments in Kenyan Politics," American Political Science Review 94, no. 3 (September 1997): 599-616.
12. Mamdani, Citizen and Subject.
13. Peter Ekeh, "Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement." Comparative Studies in Society and History 17, no. 1 (January 1975): 91-112.
14. Mamdani, Citizen and Subject.
15. See Nelson Kasfir, The Shrinking Political Arena: Participation and Ethnicity in African Politics, with a Case Study of Uganda (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976).
16. Angelique Haugerud, The Culture of Politics in Modern Kenya (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
17. Ludwig von Hohnel, Discovery of Lakes Rudolf and Stefanie: A Narrative of Count Samuel Tereki's Exploring and Hunting Expeditions in Eastern Equatorial Africa, 2 vols., trans. Nancy Bell (London: Frank Cass, 1894, 1968). Cited in Haugerud, The Culture of Politics, p. 1.
18. Ludwig von Hohnel, Discovery of Lakes Rudolf and Stefanie: A Narrative of Count Samuel Tereki's Exploring and Hunting Expeditions in Eastern Equatorial Africa, 2 vols., trans. Nancy Bell (London: Frank Cass, 1894, 1968). Cited in Haugerud, The Culture of Politics, p. 1.
19. Haugerud, The Culture of Politics, p. 1.
20. Gurushri Swamy, "Kenya: Patchy, Intermittent Commitment," in Ishrat Husain and Rashid Faruquee, eds., Adjustment in Africa: Lessons from Country Case Studies (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 1994), p. 236.
21. Ibid., p. 197.
22. David Himbara, Kenyan Capitalists, the State, and Development (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994), p. 134.
23. Swamy, "Kenya: Patchy, Intermittent Commitment," p. 223.
24. Himbara, Kenyan Capitalists, p. 116.
25. Merilee Grindle, Challenging the State: Crisis and Intervention in Latin America and Africa (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996). p. 144.
26. Swamy, "Kenya: Patchy, Intermittent Commitment," p. 225.
27. Republic of Kenya, "Economic Management for Renewed Growth," Sessional Paper No. 1 (Nairobi: Government Printer, 1986). Quoted in Grindle, Challenging the State, p. 145.
28. Republic of Kenya, "Economic Management for Renewed Growth," Sessional Paper No. 1 (Nairobi: Government Printer, 1986). Quoted in Grindle, Challenging the State, p. 145.
29. Republic of Kenya, "African Socialism and Its Application to Planning in Kenya," Sessional Paper No. 10 (Nairobi: Government Printer, 1965).
30. Joel Barkan and Frank Holmquist, "Peasant-State Relations and the Social Base of Self-Help in Kenya," World Politics 41, no. 3 (April 1989): 359-380.
31. Swamy, "Kenya: Patchy, Intermittent Commitment," p. 227.
32. York Bradshaw and Michael Wallace. Global Inequalities (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Pine Forge Press, 1996), pp. 69-70.
33. Swamy, "Kenya: Patchy, Intermittent Commitment," p. 198.
34. Ibid., p. 199.
35. Ibid., p. 193.
36. Foweraker and Landman, Citizenship Rights and Social Movements p 193.
37. In this scandal an Asian businessman linked to high-ranking politicians swindled the government out of millions of dollars. This fraudulent scheme involved export compensation for gold and diamonds, neither of which are produced in significant quantities in Kenya.
38. In late 1997, following the successful strike by teachers, nurses went on strike nationwide, demanding a review of their terms of service, especially salary adjustments. Although the government ignored this crippling strike throughout the election period, it eventually fired the nurses without fully resolving the issue. A similar national action by bank staff lasted for less than a week before the government gave in to their demands that soft loans received by bank workers be exempt from tax.
39. "Constitutional Counter: Opposition Demands for Political Reforms Before the Elections Unsettle President Moi," Africa Confidential 38, no. 14 (4 July 1997): 5-6.
40. The NCEC's tactics have ranged from high-profile confrontations with the state to otherwise mundane but significant civic education and mobilization activities. It has engaged citizens directly by organizing popular meetings in both urban and rural areas, although most of its rallies were outlawed by the government and broken up by the police. Nonetheless, these mass conventions typically attract thousands of citizens (and receive support from both the National Council of Nongovernmental Organizations and churches). The NCEC mass activities, starting with a civil society convention in April 1997, have escalated to public rallies that have led to violent confrontation with the state. For example, on 1 June 1997-ironically, Madaraka or Self-Government Day - a public rally was brutally dispersed by riot police. Subsequent rallies were held on 7 July (or saba saba, this one commemorating the day in 1991 when the first public rally explicitly demanding multipartyism was brutally broken up by police), 8 August (none none), 9 September (tisa lisa), and 10 October (kumi kumi) - also, ironically, Moi Day. On this last occasion, while Moi was showcasing the glory of his nineteen years in power at Nyayo Stadium, police across town (armed with truncheons and tear gas), were battling with the public. NCEC activists, and opposition legislators.
41. See, for example, Paul Kaiser, "Structural Adjustment and the Fragile Nation: The Demise of Social Unity in Tanzania," Journal of Modern African Studies 34, no. 2 (1996): 227-237; John Lucas and Bruce Heilman, "A Social Movement for African Capitalism? A Comparison of Business Associations in Two African Cities," African Studies Review 40, no. 2 (September 1997): 141-171; and Heilman, this issue.
42. See, for example, Paul Kaiser, "Structural Adjustment and the Fragile Nation: The Demise of Social Unity in Tanzania," Journal of Modern African Studies 34, no. 2 (1996): 227-237; John Lucas and Bruce Heilman, "A Social Movement for African Capitalism? A Comparison of Business Associations in Two African Cities," African Studies Review 40, no. 2 (September 1997): 141-171; and Heilman, this issue.