ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 looks at the aftermath of the 2002 general election that witnessed Mwai Kibaki’s National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) wrestle control of political power from the Kenya African National Union (KANU) in a landslide victory that was hailed as Kenya’s great model for peaceful democratic change. While the election brought about much excitement and hope that the country was about to experience a new beginning, however, the NARC alliance, which captured the state with a popular mandate for change, was clearly not capable of reconfiguring the Kenyan state and propelling it in the direction of democratic governance. The chapter follows Kibaki’s attempt to reform the Kenyan state, starting with a diverse cabinet and tackling the corruption that had overrun the government organs. Kibaki had inherited an economic system that had been pilfered and preyed upon since independence, and the NARC government’s attempt to repair and restructure it resulted in the continued politicisation of the distribution of resources and the outbreak of violence. The chapter highlights the importance of political and economic stability in Kenya for the region and goes on to analyse the elections in 2002 in comparison with the previous elections in 1992 and 1997, analysing the results and whether they were free and fair. The chapter ends with a discussion about the impact of the 2002 election results, which brought about the successful removal of Moi through the ballot box, as well as about the future of Kenya in the light of this positive step towards real democracy.
