SAIS Tackles Kenya at 50 – PT 2: Grand Political Narratives

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British Institute in East Africa, Charles Hornsby, Dan Branch, ICC Kenya, John Harrington, Jomo Kenyatta, KANU, Ken Opalo, Kenya, Susanne Mueller, UNIP, William Ruto

Yesterday, I returned to the ‘Kenya at 50’ conference for the last panel of the first day, ‘Politics: The Grand Narrative.’  I’m not sure if it was because it was the end of the day, or the overly broad focus, but I did not find this panel to be nearly as engaging as the first I attended.

The exception was

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.