Introduction

Using the aftermath of the 2007 Kenyan general elections, this introductory chapter sets out to examine the root causes of Kenya’s political fragility despite its perceived stability in the region. Reviewing the history of ethnic tensions in Kenya, dating back to 1963, the chapter offers an overview of a complex process through which the colonial power structures were consolidated, and ethnicity politicised as the postcolonial Kenyan state sought to extend unhedged authoritarian control very much after the colonial regime before it. The crisis of democratisation in Kenya, the chapter argues, was rooted in a particular regime of capital accumulation akin to predatory tendencies. The chapter argues that the predatory nature of the Kenyan state was initiated by Kenya’s founding president, Jomo Kenyatta, and refined over the next four decades by his two immediate successors, Daniel Arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki. The chapter concludes with a thoroughgoing review of the rich literature linked to the development of the Kenyan state which provides a good backdrop to what unfolds in the following chapters.