Africa in DC & The Upcoming Week

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Kenya election, Raila Odinga, Uhuru Kenyatta, Wilson Center

This week brings a lot of good Africanist events, particularly in the first part of the week, and I expect to cover a few here (expect those posts on Wednesday and Thursday).  One that I don’t think I’ll be able to make is Raila Odinga’s speech at the Wilson Center.  I would be thrilled if anyone is able to provide me with a guest post on this.

Rather bizarrely, he is speaking on continent wide issues.  Any thoughts as to why he is shirking from the recent Kenyan elections?  I’ve grumbled in several places about my frustrations with DC think tanks, who have been quick to analyze why the elections were peaceful but have been less hesitant to speak to the consequences of the election. If there’s anyone who I’d be eager to hear speak on the election, it is Odinga, who ended up losing to Uhuru Kenyatta in the recent presidential elections.

Ironic.

Look for my first CSIS Africa Note review (on a southern African country) tomorrow.

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Kenyan Election Watch at SAIS (Guest Post Courtesy of The Shelf)

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Ekuru Aukot, Ethnicity in Kenya, Kenya election, Raila Odinga, SAIS, Uhuru Kenyatta

I encourage readers to submit guest posts.  The post below is by a Kenyan graduate student (Habiba Chirchir, a literary, travel, and African news blogger) at GWU who attended the Kenyan election watch at SAIS this Monday that I mentioned previously.  The Kenyan elections have been a very hot topic in DC, almost crowding out the conversation on Islamic militants in Mali.

On Monday night (3/4/2013) I joined friends at SAIS to watch the Kenyan election results that were being streamed online.

Kenyan Elections Pt. II (Brookings): Jendayi Frazer Calls the ICC ‘Illegitimate’

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Brookings Institution, Jendayi Frazer, Karuti Kanyinga, Kenya, Kenya election, Kenya ICC, Mwangi Kimenyi

The Brookings Institution hosted a more riveting than usual talk today, “Kenya Decides: The 2013 Presidential Election.”  As I mentioned in the previous post, this talk, on a much more prominent platform, repeated the guests that SAIS convened yesterday with the addition of Jendayi Frazer, the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under George W. Bush.  If I recall correctly, Frazer stated that Kenya was the first African country she ever visited.

SAIS Addresses Kenya’s Good Governance Prospects

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Johnnie Carson Kenya, Karuti Kanyinga, Kenya election, Kenya ICC, Kenya political violence, Mwangi Kimenyi, Raila Odinga, SAIS African studies, Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto

SAIS kept up its plate of Africa fare this week with a talk (in the same room as Monday’s China discussion) featuring two Kenyans (one US-based, one from Kenya). Mwangi Kimenyi, the Africa expert at Brookings, was joined by Karuti Kanyinga (disclaimer – I have worked briefly with Karuti), a scholar at the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi. The topic was “Looking Past Kenya’s Election: Ethnic and Institutional Challenges to Inclusive Development.” Although the stated intent was to look at challenges that Kenya will face in the aftermath of the election, the elephant in the room figured prominently as well.

Both of the speakers seemed to be relatively optimistic about recent developments in Kenya.