{"id":256358,"date":"2023-04-04T00:53:42","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T22:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/mass-protests-in-kenya-have-a-long-and-rich-history-but-have-been-hijacked-by-the-elites\/"},"modified":"2023-04-04T00:53:42","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T22:53:42","slug":"mass-protests-in-kenya-have-a-long-and-rich-history-but-have-been-hijacked-by-the-elites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/mass-protests-in-kenya-have-a-long-and-rich-history-but-have-been-hijacked-by-the-elites\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass protests in Kenya have a long and rich history \u2013 but have been hijacked by the elites"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga and his coalition party, Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya, recently called for mass protests across the country<\/a>. Odinga and his team have questioned the legitimacy of President William Ruto\u2019s win in the country\u2019s August 2022 election, and taken issue with the rising cost of living. The Conversation Africa\u2019s Kagure Gacheche spoke with Westen K Shilaho, a senior researcher on African politics, who explores the evolution of political protests in Kenya.<\/em><\/p>\n

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What does the law say about political protest?<\/h2>\n

The right to protest is enshrined in the constitution of Kenya under Article 37<\/a>. It states that:<\/p>\n

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Every person has the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket, and to present petitions to public authorities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The right to protest is also affirmed by international instruments to which Kenya is a signatory. These include the African Charter on Human and People\u2019s Rights<\/a> and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights<\/a>. <\/p>\n

However, successive Kenyan governments have repeatedly criminalised the right to protest. As a result, the police consistently react with brute force against protesters<\/a>. <\/p>\n

What led to the latest wave of protests in Kenya?<\/h2>\n

Kenya held general elections on 9 August 2022, and William Ruto was declared president<\/a>. The opposition contested the election results and filed a petition<\/a> before the supreme court, which unanimously dismissed the petition<\/a> for lack of evidence. <\/p>\n

Raila Odinga, the losing presidential contestant, rejected this ruling and has refused to recognise Ruto\u2019s win. He has taken the dispute to the court of public opinion \u2013 the streets. He has made three main demands: <\/p>\n

Protests began on 15 August 2022 when the presidential election results were declared. Hoodlums assaulted<\/a> the electoral agency\u2019s chairperson and other officials. They are yet to be held to account for these attacks.<\/p>\n

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Read more: The body choosing Kenya’s election commission is being overhauled \u2013 how this could strengthen democracy<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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After a six-month lull, these protests recently spilled over onto the streets. The opposition called for demonstrations twice a week<\/a> from 20 March until the government accedes to its demands. <\/p>\n

Ruto and his supporters have been scornful<\/a> of the opposition\u2019s demands, saying they have no basis in law, morality or logic<\/a>. Ruto dismissed the protests as acts of economic terrorism<\/a>. <\/p>\n

After two weeks of violence<\/a> \u2013 where at least three people died, several others injured and property vandalised \u2013 Ruto extended an olive branch to the opposition and asked them to call off the protests<\/a>. He suggested that the issue of the reconstitution of the electoral body could be revisited. <\/p>\n

In response, the opposition suspended the protests<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Ruto has previously said he would not be blackmailed into a power-sharing arrangement<\/a> with the opposition. If not checked, power-sharing arrangements \u2013 or \u201chandshake<\/a>\u201d in Kenya\u2019s political parlance \u2013 could become the country\u2019s default arrangement after elections. This would be to the detriment of democratic tenets. <\/p>\n

What is the history of political protests in Kenya?<\/h2>\n

Kenya\u2019s political history<\/a> is marked by mass protests that date back to the colonial period<\/a> and continued into independence. <\/p>\n

Amid police crackdowns, Kenyans protested against political assassinations<\/a> and autocracy during the tenures of the country\u2019s first president, Jomo Kenyatta, and his successor, Daniel Moi. <\/p>\n

Through a constitutional amendment<\/a>, Moi turned Kenya into a one-party state in 1982, which heightened political tensions. Later that year, Kenyans protested in Nairobi in support of an attempted coup against Moi<\/a> as opposition politicians and civil society sought a return to political pluralism. <\/p>\n

Countrywide protests were held in 1990<\/a>. This agitation, coupled with pressure from civil society, religious groups and western donors, forced Moi to accede to multiparty politics in 1991<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In 1992, mothers of political prisoners<\/a> held an 11-month hunger strike in Nairobi to demand the release of their sons. <\/p>\n

Protests against presidential results in 2007 led to a horrific crackdown<\/a>. More than 1,100 people were killed, several of them extrajudicially<\/a> by the police. Odinga had disputed Mwai Kibaki\u2019s win. Protests and summary executions also followed the 2013<\/a> and 2017<\/a> announcements of presidential election results.<\/p>\n

Protests are important. They can influence a government or a body of authority to respond to popular interests and injustice. Through protests, a government can be forced to address service delivery concerns, corruption, labour disputes, extrajudicial and summary executions and education matters, and to abandon dictatorial tendencies. In some countries, such as Tunisia, Egypt and Libya<\/a>, protests collapsed regimes. <\/p>\n

As I discuss in my book, Political Power and Tribalism in Kenya<\/a>, political protests in the country have become insular, sectarian, tribal, unashamedly personality driven and elitist. <\/p>\n

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Read more: Kenya\u2019s history of political violence: colonialism, vigilantes and militias<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

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My research found that the political elite have used protests for self-preservation and to pursue their interests. Protests have become about getting opposing political personalities to come to an agreement so that election losers don\u2019t lose all the benefits of being in power \u2013 but such agreements stifle healthy debate.<\/p>\n

Elections must produce winners and losers among the contestants. The citizenry should be the only constant winners. Their concerns must be met regardless of who ascends to power.<\/p>\n

Source: The Conversation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga and his coalition party, Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya, recently called for mass protests across the country. Odinga and his team have questioned the legitimacy of President William Ruto\u2019s win in the country\u2019s August 2022 election, and taken issue with the rising cost of living. The Conversation Africa\u2019s Kagure Gacheche spoke […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":256359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-256358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-mypr","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/mass-protests-in-kenya-have-a-long-and-rich-history-but-have-been-hijacked-by-the-elites.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}