Democratic transition and the chief's office in Ndia constituency of Kirinyaga county in Kenya, 1991 to 2010
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Date
2014-06
Authors
Kinyua, Simon Maina
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Good governance means the effectiveness with which a government performs its work and
promotes the public good. The study on the chief's office in the light of the re-emergence of
multi-party politics and democratic transition in Kenya is a response to circumstantial criticism
of the chiefs. At one point, the different political parties and parliamentary aspirants are great
opponents of the Provincial Administration, the structure under which the chief's office fall and
often call for its abolishment. The study therefore set to highlight some of the factors that make
these one-time opponents of Provincial Administration close allies of the same some other times.
Government organization and activity is requisite to successful development in the Third World.
The data enumerated shows that the chiefs were at times forced to do against their will especially
immediately after multiparty politics were reintroduced in 1991. Some were able to rise to the
challenges of their office and at the same time remain dear to the citizens. The legacy of the
operations of the office during the one-party era seems to have spilled over into the era after
multi-partism was re-introduced. This provided the locphole for the party in power to have its
party policies being implemented by the chiefs thereby blurring the distinction between party
politics and administration. This would in turn elicit a lot of anger and condemnation from the
parties that were not part of the government. The concluction of elections is by itself not enough
to foster democracy. While multi-party elections may be symptomatic of the reduction of the
more overt repressive character of the authoritarian state, it may hide beneath it processes of
political exclusion, discrimination, manipulation, corruption and mismanagement of public
resources. Majority of the respondents said they overwhelmingly voted for the patty that was
perceived to represent their region. The parliamentary contest ended almost with the nominations
because the party chosen by the 'big man' assured the candidates of sailing through during the
General Elections. Year 2007 General Elections proved a tough one for many because there were
so many parties allied to the 'big man'. The office of the chief found itself with even more
pressure from the contestants. Since 1992, the Ndia region of the study has experienced shifting
party orientation. DP was perceived as one of "their own" because its leader and presidential
candidate, Mwai Kibaki, came from the neighboring Nyeri county. From the data collected, there
is also evidence that some chiefs secretly supported the "opposition parties" because they
belonged to one. of "their own." In theory, parties are vital instruments in the democratic and
electoral process in a country but in Ndia parties that dominated during our period of the study
had an ethnio orientation. The chiefs were torn between loyalty to the office and political wave
within the region of the study during the KANU reign 1991 to 2002. The situation was further
complicated by interpersonal relationship with the candidates for the various parties and desires
of some the chiefs. The study utilized guided oral interviews, library and archival research to
gather data. Various theories were utilized; however, some could not be effectively used in the
analysis as earlier planned. We concluded by asserting that the central roles of the chief and the
sheer magnitude of day-to-day issues tackled by the chief justifies the continuity of the office but
professionalization is imperative to make it serve a democratic state.
Description
Submitted to the school of humanities and
social science in partial fulfilment for the
award of the degree of masters of arts in
political science, Kenyatta University