Freedom House Africa Head on Kenya’s Political Trajectory

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Freedom House, Kenya, NED, Uhuru Kenyatta, Vukasin Petrovic

Petrovic at Left

Things have been getting very hectic with my impending relocation to Liberia (I’ve probably only got a few more posts left in me, although I suspect I’ll continue blogging in Monrovia).  Yesterday, I did stop by the National Endowment for Democracy for part of an event on ‘Kenya after the 2013 Election.’

Vukasin Petrovic, Director of sub-Saharan Africa Programs at Freedom House was one of the two speakers and the only one I heard deliver his full set of remarks.

His main theme was one of negativity.  Petrovic noted that East Africa is one of the least democratic regions on the continent and that Kenya’s governance situation decreased democratically with the election of Uhuru Kenyatta.  Petrovic noted that  Kenyatta has took stops to close ‘operating space for civil society and media’, modeled on Ethiopia’s moves to clamp down on opposition following that country’s 2005 elections.

 

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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.

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.

My Take on Events this Week at USIP (Kenya) and the Carnegie Endowment (Sahel)

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Carnegie Endowment, ICC, Kenya's elections, Sahel crisis, Uhuru Kenyatta, USAID Kenya, USIP

There are two events coming up this week that I would like to comment on.

The first, this Tuesday at the United States Institute of Peace, asks “Why Were Kenya’s 2013 Elections Peaceful?  I’ll admit to generally sharing the frustrations that many expressed in regards to the constant predictions of violence in the run up to the election.

I covered several events on the Kenyan elections for Africa in DC.  I predicted that

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.

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.