By: Simon Kanyora
With Kenya’s next general elections scheduled to take place 12 months from now in August 2022, the political atmosphere across the country is turbulent. Violence around the time of elections is common in Kenya.
Ethnic divisions flare up as politicians exploit conflicts for increased votes and influence. This often results in destruction and death, largely affecting young people who are characterized as perpetrators, not victims.
Kenya has experienced recurrent election-related violence since the mid-1990s. A key driver of conflict and violence has been a deep-rooted fear among Kenya’s largest ethnic groups of exclusion from influence and power, and thus from access to resources. Exclusion is intensified by politicized ethnicity and corruption. These conflicts are also fuelled by inflammatory rhetoric by political leaders.
At the same time, a new political dynamic seemed to have emerged in Kenya, triggered by COVID and its impacts, but underpinned by decades of socio-economic inequality. It is based on the fact that successive Kenyan political leaders (whether in the State House or in Opposition) have come from a handful of families, and it re-frames the contest away from one of ethnic identities and alliances towards one of the downtrodden masses against the elites. It is often characterized as a contest between ‘hustlers’ – Kenya’s vast underclass typically working in the informal economy – and the ‘dynasties’ of the Kenyatta’s, Odinga’s, and other political families.
Building peace demands fluid and adaptive processes. We, especially the youths, should advocate a paradigm shift in peace process support and mediation towards creating pathways to inclusive societies.
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