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Abstract
The voters of Kenya's coastal province largely supported the ruling party of President Moi in the elections of 1992 and 1997, yet in 2002 they turned away from KANU and toward the NaRC coalition led by Mwai Kibaki. The results of the 2007 poll show a marked turn away from the party of government, amid a general decline in the numbers of votes polled. This paper examines the 2007 parliamentary election in four constituencies of Kenya's coastal region. It questions several of the prevailing orthodoxies and generalisations about Kenya's coastal politics, suggesting that the election of a candidate is a matter of local as well as national politics, and that this varies greatly from one constituency to another. The cases of Ganze, Bahari, Likoni and Malindi constituencies will be studied to illustrate these issues, exploring a variety of factors including the personalities of the candidates, their association with the key persons leading the national campaigns, and the relationships of the candidates with past regimes.
Acknowledgements
This paper is an outcome of a seminar presentation on the December 2007 elections in Kenya at IFRA, Nairobi on 10 January 2008. I would like to thank Nic Cheeseman and Justin Willis for making arrangements to hold the seminar under the difficult circumstances. I would like to thank Justin Willis for reading and making comments on a draft of this paper.
Notes
1. Figures are extracted from the Electoral Commission data base for 1997, 2002 and 2007 general elections and, for 1992, from CitationThroup and Hornsby, Multi-party Politics in Kenya. I would like to thank Justin Willis of the British Institute in Eastern Africa for making this information available.
2. CitationKHRC, Kayas of Deprivation; CitationKHRC, Kayas Revisited; CitationKagwanja, Killing the Vote; Human Rights Watch, Playing with Fire, pp. 39–106.
3. Kaya Bombo is where the Digo youth are said to have planned the attacks.
4. For a discussion on this aspect of Digo culture see CitationSperling, ‘The Growth of Islam’, pp. 31–32; Interview, Matano Ndaro, 19 January 2008, Hamadi Boga, 19 January 2008.
5. Interview, Matano Ndaro, 19 January 2008.
6. Interview, Hamadi Boga, 19 January 2008.
7. Interview, Hamadi Boga, 19 January 2008.
8. Interview, Matano Ndaro, 19 January 2008. Matano explains that the area has been invaded by the Digo who have built homes and have vowed not to leave despite the matter settled in court in 1997 in which land was confirmed to belong to a Mr Waitiki, who had received it from Jomo Kenyatta before his death in 1978.
9. Interviews, Matano Ndaro, 19 January 2008 and Hamadi Boga, 19 January 2008. Interview, Hamadi Boga, 19 January 2008.
10. Interview, Matano Ndaro, 19 January 2008.
11. Interview, George Mweri, 28 January 2008. See also the flyer by Mr Mweri spelling out his mission and vision for Malindi, which does not mention at all the question of land in Malindi and the coast.
12. Interview, John Kalama, 23 February 2008.
13. Personal Communication, Jeremiah Katana, 31 December 2006.
14. Interview, John Kalama, 23 January 2008.
15. Interview, Tuva Mwabogo, 20 January 2008.
16. Interview, John Kalama, 23 February 2008.
17. Interview, Twalib Mbarak, 15 January 2008.
18. Interview, Twalib Mbarak, 15 January 2008.
19. Stories of misappropriation of the funds, use of the fund as a personal kitty for MPs, favouritism in the allocation of funds, cronyism, and nepotism were the norm rather than the exception.
20. Interview, Twalib Mbarak, 15 January 2008
21. ‘Mungatana Interest in Presidency Supported’, Daily Nation, 18 August 2005; ‘Balala and Taib Resume Rivalry’, Daily Nation, 6 February 2006; ‘Lobby Group Formed to Unite Coast Voters’, Daily Nation, 4 April 2006.
22. Interview 2, Twalib Mbarak, 25 January 2008.
23. Interview, Lilian Dhahabu, 20 February 2008.
24. Interview, Mike Mwakidilo, 24 January 2008.
25. Interview 2, Twalib Mbarak, 25 January 2008.
26. CitationRepublic of Kenya, Kenya Economic Survey.
27. Interview, Hamid Mbarak, 24 January 2008.
28. Interview, Twalib Mbarak, 15 January 2008.
29. Interview Hare Kombe, 12 January 2008.
30. Interview, Twalib Mbarak, 25 January 2008.1 For a study of the Odinga role in the 2002 general election see CitationOloo, ‘The Raila Factor’, 159–96.