Browsing by Author "Wekesa, Peter Wafula"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Globalisation and the New Pan East Africanism: Exploring Borderland Research and Theoretical Issues in the Study of Regional Integration
    (The Africa-Asia-Latin America Scholarly Collaborative Program., 2008) Wekesa, Peter Wafula
    Intellectual discourses on regional integration in Africa have continued to gener¬ate diverse and often contradictory debates and responses. A common con¬vergence in these debates, as they have increasingly come to be associated with the current process of globalisation, is that regional integration is not only desirable but also necessary. The latter consensus seems to be justified on the premise that individual states cannot readily achieve their social, economic and political goals in isolation from their neighbours. Thus, the desirability of promoting regional integration continue to be widely acknowledged by multilat¬eral agencies, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), national governments and academics on the continent. The concept of Pan-East Africanism, seen as the new initiative to integrate the East African states of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania is contextualized within the emerging global realities and trends. This paper sets out to review the state of regional integration efforts in East Africa. Viewed within the context of Pan-East Africanism, the paper explores some of the theoretical and methodological backgrounds informing current research on regional integration. Away from the often-accepted state-centric and mainly economistic theoretical formulations, the paper offers some critical reflections on regional integration based on the new emerging borderland perspectives. It specifically argues that people centred top-up theoretical perspectives offer a more informed and practical approach to regional integration in East Africa
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The history of community relations across the Kenya-Uganda boarder; the case of the Babukusu and the Bagisu, C. 1884-1997
    (2011-11-04) Wekesa, Peter Wafula
    This study examines the history of community relations across the Kenya-Uganda border using the case of the Babukusu of Western Kenya and the Bagisu of Eastern Uganda from 1884 to 1997. From this microcosmic level, the study explores forms of transborder social, economic and political relations that have evolved between the two communities since the pre-colonial period. The study is justified on the reality that despite the increasing importance that borders continue to generate globally, the African and specifically East African context has not been given a systematic and sufficient analysis by historians. Border regions, or specifically borderlands, as sub-national areas whose social, economic and political life is directly and significantly affected by proximity to international boundaries, remain the centre at which questions of territoriality and citizenship are negotiated and settled the world over. More specifically, in regard to the community relations across borders, this study contends that these have historically functioned as catalysts and compelling influences on the quality of communication in the respective regions. As barometers for testing good neighbourliness, national peace and regional integration, Babukusu-Bagisu border relations are studied within the diverse historical context defining their evolution and transformation. The study utilizes a variety of both primary and secondary sources to analyze the context within which border relations between the Babukusu and the Bagisu emerge and are transformed before and after the colonial configuration of the Kenya-Uganda border. It delves into the history of relations between the two peoples that had long developed in the region before the European political and economic activities that finally culminated in the evolution of the border. The latter activities, as the study observes, not only ignored African interests, but were also generally conceived within western notions of the border that contradicted African conceptions of space. These European activities were further augmented by colonial and independent government policies to freeze the historical solidarities between the two communities. As the study demonstrates however, both colonial and independent government policies generated contradictions over the BukusuBugisu borderland area that made the control of interactions between the two communities with distinct geopolitical spaces problematic. Both formal and informal social, economic and political dynamics made the common Bukusu-Bugisu borderland a site of numerous state and community permutations. In examining the diverse dynamics informing the Babukusu-Bagisu relations across the Kenya-Uganda border, the study traverses through two theoretical traditions generally categorised into statecentric and borderlands perspectives. This study reveals that the two theoretical perspectives offer connected but contradictory perspectives on borders and border community relations in general and on Babukusu-Bagisu relations specifically. While statecentric perspectives conceptualise borders as tools of separation and control, borderland perspectives see borders as instruments that impede the free movement of capital, people, goods and services. This study adopts an integrative approach to critique the overwhelming top-down emphasis on state power and also borrow some useful insights that complement the bottom-up processes that uncover complex mechanisms operating at the local , national and regional levels.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Magendo & Survivalism
    (Boydell & Brewer, 2010) Wekesa, Peter Wafula
    The issue of community relations across the Kenya-Uganda border can only be underscored within the specificity that appreciates both the international and domestic state-society dynamics defining its functionality. In regard to the specific relations between the Babukusu and the Bagisu peoples, it is not possible to restrict our analysis to conflicts. Both the Babukusu and the Bagisu communities who occupy western Kenya and eastern Uganda respectively have enjoyed a corporate past whose history transcends the current common Kenya-Uganda border. This past is manifested in the peoples’ common history of origin, migration and settlement in their present areas (La Fontaine 1960; Were 1967; Makila 1978; Wafula 2000, 2007). Besides similarities in language, semblances among these communities are found in such cultural aspects as codes of conduct, marriage customs, circumcision traditions and even folklore. The historical dynamics defining the relations between the Babukusu and Bagisu have influenced the nature of their social, economic and political interactions between themselves and with other neighbouring communities that include the Bantu, Nilotic and Cushitic groups. As Makila (1978: 46) has aptly argued, in relation to the Babukusu, ‘if they are the Abaluyia1 by virtue of their geographical circumstance, they are first and foremost members of a duplex community incorporating the Bagisu by virtue of a historical circumstance.’ Throughout the pre-colonial, colonial and post-independence periods, the Babukusu and the Bagisu peoples have maintained a fluid cultural zone along the common Kenya-Uganda border that is mainly informed by their strong historical ties.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Mergers and Disintegrations: Political Party Alliance Building in Kenya between 2002 to 2022
    (EANSO, 2024-09) Kalimi, Nduu Bernice; Wekesa, Peter Wafula; Mwangi, Susan Owino
    This study explores the dynamics of political party alliance building in Kenya between 2002 to 2022 following the dissolution of the Kenya African National Union (KANU) as the dominant political entity. Employing a qualitative methodology, the research relies on interviews to gather primary data, providing an in-depth analysis of coalition formation and disbandment patterns in the post-KANU era. The study argues that since 2002, each general election in Kenya has witnessed the emergence of new political parties and alliances, formed primarily to secure electoral victories. However, these coalitions are often short-lived, dissolving soon after elections due to internal disputes, personal ambitions, policy differences, and perceptions of betrayal among members. The paper also contends that political alliances in Kenya are largely transient, driven by immediate electoral goals rather than enduring ideological commitments. The fluid nature of these coalitions indicates that alliances are sustained only as long as they serve the interests of their members. Internal conflicts and personal interests frequently lead to fragmentation, prompting the formation of new alliances aimed at better fulfilling individual ambitions and ensuring political success. This continualcycle of coalition formation and dissolution underscores the dynamic and often unstable nature of Kenyan politics, where alliances survive only until ideological differences and personal interests lead to their disintegration.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Negotiating ‘Kenyanness’: Public discourses and Private realities
    (CODESRIA, 2008) Wekesa, Peter Wafula
    Most current debates on the Kenyan nation revolve around the unfortunate events that followed the disputed 2007 presidential elections. The resultant post-election violence claimed over 1,200 lives and left thousands injured, displaced and billions worth of property destroyed. The nation is still currently agonizing over the resettlement of thousands of people evicted from their homes after the violence. Food prices and other essential commodities have skyrocketed and social inequality is threatening the social fabric of the nation. More disturbing has been the rise of several militia gangs including Mungiki, Sungusungu, Saboat Land Defence Force, Taliban among many others. The key question that most analysts of the Kenyan scene have been grappling with is not just the impact of the post-election violence but more specifically the reasons that led to the violence and how a repeat of these unfortunate events in future could be avoided. In this paper, we examine the public and private discourses that have come to inform the debates around ‘Kenyanness’ as a concept. We argue that, if ‘Kenyanness’ is an ethical and philosophical doctrine, then it should relate to the broader context of Kenyan nationhood whose object is to aspire or inspire the Kenyan people into the love for their country, Kenya. Our basic argument is that the post-election violence in Kenya provided a key test to the more often projected Kenyan collective spirit. While questioning the public discourses around the Kenyan collective spirit, the paper raises pertinent issues on the concealed private realities that continue to inform the country’s social, economic and political developments. ‘Kenyanness’, as we suggest, ought to recognize the two levels of similarity and difference as strong building blocs for the Kenyan nationhood that is peaceful and prosperous.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Old issues and new challenges: the Migingo Island controversy and the Kenya–Uganda borderland
    (Journal of Eastern African Studies, 2010-06-28) Wekesa, Peter Wafula
    This paper examines the controversy between Kenya and Uganda over the ownership of Migingo Island in the shared Lake Victoria waters, in the context of general debates regarding African boundary disputes. The Migingo controversy brings to the fore unresolved issues around the emergence, nature and transformation of African borders generally, and their significant role in addressing pertinent questions of territoriality, citizenship and nationhood. Like other border controversies elsewhere in Africa, the Migingo case challenges the perception that border areas are marginal spaces that can be ignored. Migingo's troubles underscore the realities of Africa's colonial borders, bringing into focus the border populations and the social, cultural and economic relations they generate across the dividing lines. While challenging eastern Africa's states to view local communities as important agents in fostering change along common borders, the paper emphasizes the need for harmonious border relations as a barometer in testing good neighbourliness and regional integration.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Politics of Marginal Forms: Popular Music, Cultural Identity and Political Opposition in Kenya
    (CODESRIA, 2004) Wekesa, Peter Wafula
    This paper focuses specifically on the Kenyan context to contest the foregoing position. Its argument rests on the axiom that whereas it has become normal in the writings on civil society, democratization and so on, to emphasize forms of cultural expressions that are perceived to be avowedly more understood in political circles than others, the space of popular music cannot be under-estimated. It is beneath the dialectics of production and consumption of this popular music with all its contradictions that the fertile intellectual arena on its potent marginalization could be resuscitated. The paper, addressing popular music from a historical perspective, takes into account its dynamic interplay as an aural percept, experience, social practice, individual and cultural expression and as a means of creatively adapting to perceived material conditions to reveal the complex and vital role of popular music as a system for the enactment and negotiation of emergent patterns of identity under conditions of pervasive social, political and economic change
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Post-colonialism and the politics of Kenya (review)
    (Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern, 2002) Wekesa, Peter Wafula
    Post-colonialism as a framework of analysis remains subject to debate and controversy. Although post-colonialism has been around for close to two decades, it has in recent times been a fiercely contested and debated paradigm. Given its newness and elegance in the world of academic discourse, it is not surprising that its reception has been characterized by a great deal of excitement, confusion and in many cases scepticism. Debates surrounding the study have laid claims to questions of the legitimacy of post-colonialism as a separate analytical entity in the academic discourse, its validity as a theoretical formulation as well as its disciplinary boundaries and political implications. Also, the prefix 'post' has complicated matters as it implies an 'aftermath' in two senses - temporal, as in coming after, and ideological, as in supplanting. It is the second implication that the critics of the study have found contestable. The contestation has been on the dividing line between what is colonial and its link to what counts as post-colonial. The argument has been that if the inequities of colonial rule have not been erased, it is perhaps premature to proclaim the demise of colonialism. The intervention being couched by ardent post-colonial theorists is that there is a co-existence of both post-colonial and neo-colonial conditions in many Third World countries and one has not erased the other. In this sense, whereas such countries are formally considered independent, they remain economically and culturally entrapped and dependent on their former colonial powers at the same time. Whereas the importance of formal decolonisation cannot be gainsaid, the fact that unequal relations of colonial rule are re-inscribed into the contemporary imbalances between the 'First' and 'Third' World nations cannot be dismissed as well. Post-colonialism and the Politics of Kenya gives us asuccinct entryintothis unique approach to the study of Kenyan politics. Contrary to many studies of post-colonialism that usually tend to become amorphous and sometimes rob themselves of historical specificity, the author ably locates this text within a defined disciplinary and geographical space. It is on this strength that the book emerges as a lucid, judicious and representative text whose influence in Kenyan historiography could be decisive. Rather than post-colonialism being merely treated as "the latest catchall term to dazzle the academic mind" as observed by Russell Jacoby 1, Ahluwalia Pal underscores and discounts the sources of misreading associated with the study of post-colonialism in general.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The social, cultural and economic impact of ethnic violence in Molo Division, 1969 - 2008.
    (2013-03-21) Muiru, Paul Njoroge; Omwoyo, Samson Moenga; Wekesa, Peter Wafula
    This study investigates the social, cultural and economic impact of ethnic violence in Molo Division, Nakuru County, Kenya in the period 1969 - 2008. The Division is inhabited by several ethnic groups although the Agikuyu, the Kipsigis (a sub-group of the larger Kalenjin) and the Abagusii are the most populous. Since the introduction of multipartysm in 1991, their political and cultural differences have been exploited by politicians; the result has been ethnic based violence that has led to social, cultural and economic transformations that are worth investigating. After providing some historical background to the study, an analysis of the causes of violence in the period the period 1992 - 2008 is made. The literature reviewed showed that although there is much literature on ethnic violence at the international, regional and national levels, little effort has been made to interrogate the social, cultural and economic consequences of the violence in specific areas such as Molo Division. This gap justifies the proposed study. The study is guided by four objectives: to analyze the causes of violence in the area of study, to investigate the social, cultural and economic ramifications of the violence, to critique current peace building efforts and suggest potential strategies that can lead to a de-escalation of conflicts in the Division. The study is predicated on four fundamental premises. First, ethnic violence in the area has always been politically motivated. Besides slowing down the economic growth of the Division, it also assumes that the violence has adversely affected the socio-cultural aspects of the local communities. Finally, there exist avenues for inter-ethnic cooperation that can be used to build sustainable peace in the area. The study employs an integrated approach that utilizes several concepts derived from conflict and postcolonial theories to analyze data. From conflict theories, the power relations tradition has been used to explain the role of politicians in fomenting conflicts. On the other hand, the struggle for scarce resources such as land and employment opportunities in the public service has been analyzed using the concept of competitive struggle developed by classical economists. Variants of conflict theory such as Coser Lewis' conflict functionalism and Randall Collins' analytic conflict theory have also been used in data analysis. On the other hand, the concepts of allocation and transfer, derived from Achille Mbembe (2001) have been used to interrogate the crisis of the postcolonial subspace of Molo Division. In this study, the period 1969-2008 is taken as a postcolonial regime in Kenya's history. Ethnic violence in this period is considered as a manifestation of the various struggles and contestations formerly colonized people engage in in an attempt to confront political, cultural, economic and social forms of domination. The study argues that ethnic violence has led to deaths, family breakdown as well as a general increase in the social distance between ethnic groups. Similarly, communities have been compelled to devise survival strategies to cope with conflict situations. Moreover, violence led to cessation of joint inter-ethnic initiation ceremonies, interfered with the religious practices of the Ogiek and led to a relaxation of the rigid rules that govern relations between the In-Laws. At the economic level, the study demonstrates that there has been immense destruction of resources due to the violence, slowed the economic growth of Molo Division and disrupted trade and agriculture. In terms of methodology, the study employs oral interviews, focus group discussions, archival and library research to collect data. The study finishes by critiquing current approaches to peace in the area and argues that strategies such as memorialization, restitution and reconciliation can complement existing peace initiatives in the Division.