BC-Department of History, Archeology And Political Studies
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item Gender and the Politics of Nairobi, 1895 To 2013(Kenyatta University, 2023) Kilonzo, Ondere Philip; Edward Waswa Kisiang'ani; Gordon Omenya OnyangoThis study analyzes the gender dimensions of politics in Nairobi from 1895 to 2013. This is attributed to the fact that gender discourse in the postcolonial spaces has received inadequate scholarly attention. A background chapter to this study examines the evolution and development of a multiplicity of gender identities in Kenya‟s capital city, Nairobi. This was in the view that the colonial apparatuses patterned gender inequalities in Nairobi. On the basis of this assumption, it is argued that the social, economic and political conditions of the colonial state characterized the post-independent dispensation. Consequently, the study explored gender dimensions during the era of the founding President of Kenya, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Based on documented evidence on politics in Kenya, this study highlights the inadequacy in addressing gender as one of the most outstanding identity makers that influenced sound cleavages in the country. Further, the study interrogates politics and gender configurations during President Moi‟s era and examines the status of gender and politics in Nairobi under Mwai Kibaki‟s era. It demonstrates that gender inequalities in the city were amplified during President Moi‟s era. Subsequently, despite the endeavor by President Mwai Kibaki to guarantee effective representation and equal participation of women and men in the politics of Nairobi, gender inequalities were persistently witnessed. Apparently, the scenario was not new but one which was (re)constructed and (re)evaluated in the city. This study utilized the post-colonial theoretical variants of plurality and hybridity. The post-colonial theory is a deliberate effort to question European cultural values in formally colonized spaces. The theory was therefore used in this study to question how the postcolonial subalterns learnt to politically bargain within the political spaces of Nairobi regardless of their sexes. The theory not only enables us to understand a plethora of gender inequalities in the post-colonial city of Nairobi, but also gives an intellectual platform to interrogate gender discourses authored and authorized by the West. The study has established that Nairobi‟s post-colonial space was a deliberate cultural, political as well as economic construction of the colonial legacy. This is based on the assumption that men and women voices and values as mediated in identity politics within Nairobi were produced and propagated by colonialism and the post-colonial state in their formal and informal variants. Secondly, the study challenges pre-colonial African value systems on gender relations and provides avenues for (re)thinking and understanding gender dimensions in an urban set up. Purposive sampling and snow-balling techniques have been used to sample one hundred and eighty nine informants within Nairobi whilst keeping into consideration of gender balance. Only ten of the possible seventeen Nairobi constituencies were sampled due to the qualitative nature of the study. Structured questionnaires were used as research instruments for data collection. In addition, archival and secondary data were useful during the analysis of this work within the broader qualitative research design. The study concludes that, as a social identity, gender in politics unravels debilitating effects on national consciousness. The study recommends a re-examination of Western institutions and forms of knowledge in order to dismantle and formulate more structural and institutional regulations needed to achieve gender parity.Item Kenya's 2013 General Election: Stakes, Practices and Outcome(Twaweza Communications, 2015) Njogu, Kimani; Wekesa, Peter WafulaElections, as formal decision-making processes by which populations choose individuals to hold public office, usually provide unique reflective moments which are punctuated by myriad experiences not just from the action of polling itself but more significantly by the implications of the lengthy electoral process. But as Kadima & Owuor (2006: 182) have noted, ‘periodic elections are not in themselves a guarantee of sustainable democracy.’ Rules that ensure a level playing field, strong and credible institutions, and the rule of law are necessary conditions for democratic elections. All democratic societies hold elections essentially because they are at the core of representative...Item Origin and Growth Of Militia Movements: The Case of Sungusungu among the Abagusii of Kisii And Nyamira, Counties,Kenya, 1982-2015(kenyatta University, 2021) Nyaribo, Wyclife Samuel; Susan Mwangi; Wasonga JosephThis study focuses on the evolution and growth of the Sungusungu movement among the Abagusii in the period 1982-2015. It examines the origin and growth of Sungusungu movement in response to various challenges, including lack of security, poverty and economic challenges. The study was undertaken to investigate reasons for its continued existence even after being banned many times by the state and accused of being a serious communal terror group by both local and international human rights agencies. The study was guided by three objectives: trace the emergence of Sungusungu movement among the Abagusii, explore how the actors, goals and operations of Sungusungu have changed overtime and finally examined the role of Sungusungu in crime prevention in the community. This study made use of social movement theory of Neil Smelser (1962), mass society and relative deprivation theory of Kornhauser (1959), and rational action theory of Mill (1950). The target population for the study was men and women aged 18 years and above in both Kisii and Nyamira Counties. Respondents were selected through purposeful sampling. Data collection was done through use of questionnaires, focus group discussion and interviews. The study therefore, found out that although the issue of security provision is the duty of the modern state, there is need of complimentary by the civil society who is the consumer. Increase of criminal activities due to lack of state security leads to coming up of non-state security actors. Second, that lack of proper and recognized Sungusungu membership has made it possible for the group members to infiltrate government security policies in the area like Community Policing and the ‘Nyumba Kumi’. Finally, the study established that the group receives a lot of support in the areas that it has managed to reduce criminal activities. This study was important as it sought to enhance the scholarly lacuna that exists particularly on the available vigilante groups among the Abagusii as most of the active groups in the area seem not to be included in many scholarly works and reports. The study will also contribute a lot to both the National and County governments’ policy makers to lay strategies on how to improve security and incorporate public participation on matters of security.Item Book Review: Wanjiku Mukabi-Kabira, Masheti Masinjila and Wanjiku Mbugua (eds.) "Delusions: Essays on Social Construction of Gender" Nairobi, Femnet, 1994(Kenyatta University Faculty of Arts, 1999) Ochwada, H.Gender relations constitute the social, political and economic interaction of both men and women. As a result, gender contract is interpreted as an unwritten and invisible social contract defining the actions of men and women in the belief that this is what society expects of them. Viewed within this framework, gender research is about relationships between men and women. But in single studies the focus can be on only women or men, given that their-situation is analyzed within a structural gender relationship. Where does the book under review fit within this framework? Thrust of Text The text's focus is on the relationship between men and women, but with a bias for women. Indeed, this isunderstandable, considering that the social construction of gender preponderantly invisibilizes and marginalizes women in the general social contract. This explains why in the historiography of gender relations worldwide, the emphasis is on women, making the subject of gender synonymous with women's studies. Consequently, women researchers tend to monopolize the production of knowledge on gender. In some instances, they jealously guard their small 'academic empires' acquired in the field. However, in this regard, the African Women's development and Communication (Fernnet) Organization transcends this parochialism by incorporating male researchers in its projects. Delusions: Essays on Social Construction of Gender is one such endeavour. It consists of seven chapters, all of them discussing the social construction of genderItem Governance and the Electoral Process: Nigeria and the United States of America(Kenyatta University, 2002) Wanyonyi, P.W.Nigeria, African's most populous country, went back to a democratically elected government after the February 27th, 1999 elections. This democratisation has corne in the wake of many struggles some of which resulted in certain leading figures being killed. The climax of those dark days was during the reign of Sani Abacha. Indeed it was in his bloody period of rule that Nigeria was ostracised from the Commonwealth. In reviewing this text which was published in his reign, I will be reflecting on how his regime brazenly banned scholars not only from Nigeria but also Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ghana and USA from holding a conference whose theme was "Governance and the electoral process"Item The New Ideology of Imperialism.(Kenyatta University, 2002) Murunga, G. R.Two particular and interrelated "isms" are central to these challenges. These are postmodernism and postcoloniality. The two represent an age of intellectual curiosity but also disorder given their attempts to redefine history and especially the place of the Third World. While one would have expected reversals in the initial compartmentalization of the globe into Euro- America as opposed to the 'rest of us', the contemporary state of knowledge has not helped subvert this Eurocentric image. Postmodernism and postcolonialism are intellectual movements celebrating the latest ideology of imperialism.Item Post-colonialism and the politics of Kenya (review)(Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern, 2002) Wekesa, Peter WafulaPost-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.Item Magendo & Survivalism(Boydell & Brewer, 2010) Wekesa, Peter WafulaThe 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.Item Kenya: The Struggle for Democracy(Zed Books, 2007) Murunga, G. R.; Nasong'o, S. W.Item Nairobi’s Matatu Men Portrait of a Subculture(Goethe-Istitut, 2013) Mungai, M."Nairobi’s Matatu Men. Portrait of a Subculture” marks the beginning of our Text series that pays tribute to the academic efforts in East Africa. Due to a rather commercial publishing industry and lack of relevant institutions, most of Kenya’s well-respected intellectuals never published a book, not even the most important work of their career: their dissertation. The consequence of this is dramatic as they are not part of a global, intellectual discussion. Mbugua Wa Mungai tells the story of a subculture that has been iconic to Nairobi’s everyday life since the 1950s: Nairobi’s privately-owned mini buses which provide public transport. He takes this culture as an entry point into a discussion of broader issues about Nairobi and Kenyan society. The author’s previous work has inspired many scholars to interrogate various aspects of popular culture in other African cities. This book, his main academic work and a seminal contribution of Cultural Studies from Africa, opens new trajectories for the understanding of popular culture and urban life.