Electoral Conflicts and Economic Development in Kenya

Since independence Kenya has been plagued by electoral related conflicts. People have lost their I lives and properties worth millions of shillings have been destroyed. This paper aims to investigate the causes of the electoral conflicts and how it has affected the economic development of the country. Kenya got independence in 1963 from the Great Britain. The first election was held in 1964 and Jomo Kenyatta became the first president of the country through the Kenya African National Union (KANU). The main opposition party at that time the Kenya African Development Union (KADU) was submerged into the ruling party hence Kenya became a defacto one party state. Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi took over in 1978 after the death of Jomo Kenyatta. An attempted coup in 1982 led to an amendment of the constitution of the country rendering Kenya a dejure one party state. This was to stay until 1991 whereby after agitation by civil society and non-governmental organizations the provision which was famously known as section 2A was repealed making Kenya a multi-party state. The first multi-party election held in 1992 was marred by violence. They were claims of rigging, this sparked ethnic vjol_e_D-ce in most parts of the country especially in Rift Valley and Coast provinces. The situation was the same in 1997, they were similar claims of rigging and this ignited ethnic figh_!igg. The 2002 election was different; the opposition led by Mwai Kibaki won the election. Power was transferred peacefully and not much violence was witnessed. The watershed of the Kenyan elections was in 2007, the then opposition leader Raila Odinga disputed the election results. This caused unprecedented large scale violence. According to the Commission Investigating the ost-Election Violence (CIPEV) report also famously known as the Waki report 1,300 people were killed and 600,000 rendered homeless and living in tents as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).The research will rely mainly on secondary data.