Event

The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs [NUPI] has the great pleasure of inviting you to a seminar on the current situation in Kenya with Dr. Godwin R. Murunga, Kenyatta University, Nairobi

Spontaneous or Premeditated?
The Roots of Post Election Protests in Kenya

On 27th December 2007, Kenyans went to the polls to elect civic leaders, members of parliament and the president in what turned out to be a very smooth and peaceful process. But on the 30th December 2007, the ‘winner’ of the presidential race was announced in a controversial manner following a vote tallying process that was anything but transparent and fair. The country exploded into generalised protests and violence as had never been witnessed before since independence. In explaining the character and manifestations of the protests and violence, two general positions dominate. There are those who see the violence as a spontaneous response to a flawed tallying process while others consider it premeditated and organized by the political class. This lecture will focus instead on the motives and motivations of actors and perpetrators to illustrate that there is no fine line distinguishing one form of protest and violence from the other. Further, the lecture will explore what role this violence played in getting local actors and the international community to push for a new power sharing arrangement in Kenya.

Godwin R. Murunga teaches in the Department of History, Archaeology and Political Studies at Kenyatta University, Nairobi KENYA. He is a member of the CODESRIA Executive Committee and has edited two recent books titled Kenya: Struggles for Democracy, (Dakar and London: CODESRIA in Association with Zed Books, 2007) and a collection of Issa Shivji’s essays titled Where is Uhuru? Reflections on the Struggle for Democracy in Africa, (Oxford: Fahamu Books, 2009).

Lecture time: 13.00 -14.00.