Marginalization and political participation on the Kenya coast: the 2013 elections

Abstract

At the coast, the run-up to Kenya's 2013 elections was dominated by fears of violence and the calls for a boycott by the secessionist Mombasa Republican Council. However, the elections passed off largely peacefully, and coastal turnout was significantly higher than in any previous election. This article argues that the secessionist campaign was internally incoherent, and undermined by divisions within the ‘coasterian’ community it claimed to represent; and that a politics of patronage encouraged electoral participation, particularly because so many levels of political office were being contested at the same time. Despite this participation, however, the sense of marginalization remains very powerful among many people at the coast.

Keywords:

• Kenya
• elections
• coast
• politics
• secession

Notes

1. Much of the discussion here echoes the argument made in Willis and Gona, “Pwani C Kenya?”

2. Mazrui, “Ethnic Voices and Trans-ethnic Voting.”

3. Brennan, “Lowering the Sultan's Flag.”

4. Willis and Gona, “Pwani C Kenya?,” pp. 62–4.

5. The Star, “Politicians Told to Keep Off”; The Star, “15 Members of illegal MRC”; Daily Nation, “18 Members of Banned Gang.”

6. IPSOS Political Barometer survey, February 22, 2013. Accessed June 16, 2013. http://www.ipsos.co.ke/home/index.php/downloads/.

7. Digital Standard, “MRC Saga Offers Mixed Bag.”

8. The Star, “Politicians are Reaching Out”; The Star, ‘Mwakwere Now Backs Outlawed”; Daily Nation, ‘Muslim Leaders Ask State.”

9. The Star, “My Party Supports MRC.”

10. For the suggestion that the MRC is a highly structured organization, see Digital Standard, “How Mombasa Republican Council.”

11. Goldsmith, “Mombasa Republican Council,” p. 33.

12. For example, Mutuma, “Cry the Beloved Pwani”; Goldsmith, “It's Time to Stop.”

13. Parkin, “Swahili Mijikenda”; McIntosh, Edge of Islam; Willis and Gona, “Tradition, Tribe, and State.”

14. Willis and Gona, “Pwani C Kenya?,” pp. 67–70.

15. Macharia, ‘Separatist Storm Brewing.”

16. Daily Nation, “Outlawed Gang Disrupts Mock.”

17. Daily Nation, “Kaloleni Death Toll Rises.”

18. Daily Nation, “Four Killed in Panga Attack.”

19. The Star, “MRC Says It's Not Working”; Daily Nation, “Rich Landowners Behind Secession Push.”

20. Digital Standard, “MRC Founders: Separation Was Not Part.”

21. Daily Nation, “Mwakwere and Balala Fight”; Daily Nation, “Mwakwere and Balala G7”; Sunday Nation, ‘Mwakwere-Balala Power Wars.”

22. The Star, “3 Coast MPs Probed.”

23. Daily Nation, “Sonko Strikes Peace Deal.”

24. Daily Nation, “Sheikh Dor Denies Incitement Charge.”

25. The Star, “MRC's Mraja and Randu”; The Standard, “MRC in New Bid.”

26. The Standard, “Seeking Autonomy”; Daily Nation, “Judges Dismiss MRC Breakaway.”

27. Digital Standard, “Change of Heart”; The Star, “Two Ex-MRC Officials.”

28. The Star, “MRC Suspects Face Oathing Charges.”

29. The Star, “Kisauni DC Orders Crackdown”; The Star, “Hateful Leaflets Spark Tension.”

30. Daily Nation, “Police Injured in Petrol Bomb Attack.”

31. Daily Nation, “KDF Deployed to Mombasa”; The Star, “MRC Attack Leaves Six Policemen.”

32. The Star, “MRC Suspects Charged.”

33. Wolf, “Contemporary Politics”; Stren, “Factional Politics and Central Control.”

34. Mazrui, “Ethnic Voices and Trans-ethnic Voting,” pp. 285–7.

35. Sunday Nation, “Historical Injustices Team Stirs Up Controversy.”

36. Gona, “Changing Political Faces.”

37. Throup and Hornsby, Multi-Party Politics in Kenya, p. 340.

38. Hyden and Leys, “Elections and Politics”; Berg-Schlosser, “Modes and Meaning”; Throup, “Elections and Political Legitimacy”; Cheeseman, “Kenya Since 2002.”

39. Chabal, “Few Considerations on Democracy”; Lindberg, “‘It's our time to “chop”’; Gyimah-Boadi, “Political Parties, Elections and Patronage.”

40. Nugent, “Banknotes and Symbolic Capital,” p. 255.

41. Daily Nation, “Wrangles Rock ODM Campaign”; The Standard, “Change, Experience Clash at Mombasa”; The Star, “ODM Won't Give Direct Nomination.”

42. Standard Digital, “MPs Vote to Increase.”

43. Infotrak poll, 23–30 June 2013; further details are available from the authors upon request.

44. The Star, “Senator Hopeful Wants Security.”

45. The Star, “Kilifi ODM Polling Clerks.”

46. Digital Standard, “Disorder, Violence Reign in Jubilee”; The Star, “TNA Cancels Kilifi South.”

47. Daily Nation, “Coast Bedfellows Mark Battle Lines.”

48. The Star, “Historical Land Problems”; The Star, “Fury Over URP ‘Direct Ticket’”; The Star, “Uncertainty Over URP Primaries.”

49. For competing Muslim intermediaries, see Ole Naado, “Muslims Should Take Sides”; Daily Nation, “Muslim Group Endorses CORD”; Daily Nation, “Jubilee Unveils Manifesto”; The Star, “Sheikh Ngao Dumps Raila's Cord”; The Star, “Clerics Dump Raila.” For ‘elders’, see, for example, The Star, ‘Mijikenda Kaya Elders Plan”; Digital Standard, “Kaya Elders Call for Peace”; Digital Standard, “Kaya Elders Warn Against Impostors.”

50. Nugent, “Winners, Losers and Also Rans.”

51. Digital Standard, “Land Issues Return to Haunt”; Daily Nation, “Jubilee Will Solve Land Problems”; The Star, “100 Families Evicted in Changamwe”; Digital Standard, “Squatters Clash with Surveyors.”

52. The Star, “Balala Faults Kimaiyo Over Land.”

53. Daily Nation, “Joho, Shahbal in Close Battle.”

54. The Star, “Joho Supporters Heckle VP Kalonzo”; The Star, “Joho, Shahbal Rivalry Mars.”

55. Daily Nation, “Kilifi: Controversy as Kingi”; The Star, “Kilifi Aspirants Ditch Kingi.”

56. The Star, “Aspirant Calls for Msambweni.”

57. Digital Standard, “Zoning, Tribes and Party Waves”; interview with Mwambi Mwasaru in Mombasa, March 9, 2013.

58. Standard on Saturday, “PS: Violence in Tana Delta”; Digital Standard, “Seven Killed in Fresh Tana Attacks”; Daily Nation, “11 Killed in Tana Revenge Attack.”

59. Mayoyo and Jenje, “How Politics of Tribe.” See, for example, Daily Nation, “Tana Violence a Slap”; Ndunda, “Wardei Win Posts.”

60. The Star, “MPs Threaten to Sue.”

61. Ndunda, “Wardei Win Posts.”

62. Digital Standard, “Lamu Port, Land Key Issues.”

63. Awadh, “Lamu Voting Altered.”

64. Daily Nation, “Shahbal Files Petition Challenging.”

65. Infotrak opinion poll carried out 23–30 June 2013; further details are available from the authors upon request.

66. The Star, “MRC Want to Meet Uhuru.”