This Weeks Discourse on Africa in DC Events Or My Grumblings on DC Kenyan Election Coverage

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Ahmed Issack Hassan, ICC Africa, IFES, Keny Election, Kenya election lessons, Kenya ICC, Kenya lessons for ZImbabwe, Mike Yard, Uhuru Kenyatta, USIP, Wilson Center

While I would normally be somewhat pleased to see institutions like USIP, the Wilson Center, and IFES pause to take stock of a recent election, I am, as I have previously stated, a bit fatigued by the excessive focus that Kenya’s elections have generated (it almost seems that the Kenyan elections have more staying power than militants in the Sahel).

It looks like I may not get to a single Africa event this week (not that there is much going on).  If any readers were at the Horace Campbell event at Busboys and Poets last night (I can’t believe it, but I don’t think I’ve covered a Busboys and Poets event since launching Africa in DC), I welcome your thoughts.  On Wednesday, IFES will be discussing “Lessons Learned from Kenya’s 2013 poll“.  The main speaker is the Chair of Kenya’s electoral commission (he must be in tight with IFES as I heard him speak there about a year ago), which makes the event pretty interesting.

However, I wonder why more people are not talking about, as Johnnie Carson might say, the consequences of Kenya’s election.  I suspect Kenyatta’s election will have significant adverse consequences for the legitimacy of the ICC.  Perhaps to further draw my ire, the Africa blog of the Wilson Center published a piece yesterday detailing ‘lessons learned’ from Kenya’s elections.  I hope that some of these lessons learned will be discussed in the Zimbabwe context (why is DC not thinking about that election???)  Kenya’s elections were also marked by a host of new local governance structures resulting from the devolution of state authority following the adoption of  new constitution.  I hope someone will consider this aspect in the conversations as well.  Finally, while I’m not a Kenyan watcher, it seems to me that the elections did nothing to undermine the country’s ethnic cleavages.

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.