Police Brutality In Kenya During The Election Period

Master's Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, , language: English, abstract: This research explores cases of police brutality in Kenya during the election period. The study explores police brutality in post-police reform period from 2010-2018. It is a qualitatively done study through content analysis, mainly a review of the newspapers and articles detailing cases of police brutality in Kenya. These data are analysed thematically regarding the research question. The findings of the research concerning the research question found that the police brutality is still happening in Kenya, mostly during the elections period. The study further found that there is an ingrained culture of police brutality, which is influenced by historical, contemporary social-cultural and structural dimensions. I concluded the study with implications of the findings, for the theory and the research. Further, the study suggests the reform policies within the context and adherence to the constitution. The proposal offers two approaches, from below and from above. The research suggests, one, an establishment of grassroots and, encourages community policing: two, review of the police recruitment and police training curriculum. Three, an increase of financial and human resources support to the Independent Policing Oversight Kenya (IPOA). Four, laying down proper parameter which will separate Police from executive authorities, and firth, addressing the socioeconomic status of the police officers.

"This report documents excessive use of force by police, and in some cases other security agents, against protesters and residents in some of Nairobi's opposition strongholds after the elections"--Publisher's description.

Multiparty elections have become the bellwether by which all democracies are judged, and the spread of these systems across Africa has been widely hailed as a sign of the continent’s progress towards stability and prosperity. But such elections bring their own challenges, particularly the often intense internecine violence following disputed results. While the consequences of such violence can be profound, undermining the legitimacy of the democratic process and in some cases plunging countries into civil war or renewed dictatorship, little is known about the causes. By mapping, analysing and comparing instances of election violence in different localities across Africa – including Kenya, Ivory Coast and Uganda – this collection of detailed case studies sheds light on the underlying dynamics and sub-national causes behind electoral conflicts, revealing them to be the result of a complex interplay between democratisation and the older, patronage-based system of ‘Big Man’ politics. Essential for scholars and policymakers across the social sciences and humanities interested in democratization, peace-keeping and peace studies, Violence in African Elections provides important insights into why some communities prove more prone to electoral violence than others, offering practical suggestions for preventing violence through improved electoral monitoring, voter education, and international assistance.

This book identifies the main factors shaping the fortunes of democracy globally. Why do some democracies in the same region and presumably subject to similar global influences remain stable while others regress? This is the question guiding all the authors of this edited book. In the search for answers, they examine 16 democracies in paired and tripled comparisons in sub-Saharan Africa, North and Latin America, East Asia, Western and Central Europe, along with two polar cases. Insights from the perspectives of history, political science, economics and international relations are offered along with a sketch of possible future scenarios. Combining approaches anchored in the analytical tradition with empirical case studies and given the broad range of topics, this book is bound to be of interest not only to students and practitioners of democracy but also to the broader academic and general readership.

There is no singular interpretation over the forces that almost brought Kenya to a standstill around the 2007 general elections. The 'truth' about what actually happened will be found in the in-between spaces of dialogue and voicing. Somewhere amidst these at times contradictory and at times reaffirming voices can be found glimpses of what the pursuit of political power can do to a people, especially in a State where accountability to citizens is of minimal value. The essays in Defining Moments capture some of the transformative moments during the crisis that rocked Kenya in 2007/2008 and in its resolution. These reflections by journalists, lawyers, political scientists and cultural workers provide additional perspectives to the relationship between elections, citizenship and violence. This book follows in the footprints of Healing the Wound: Personal Narratives about the 2007 Post Election Violence in Kenya and Re-membering Kenya Vol.1, Identity, Cultural and Freedom. We revisit some of the hotspots, the mediation process and ways of ending impunity. This is part of on-going work at Twaweza Communications to provide space so that multiple voices can be heard as we seek to build a peaceful and just society. In the process we hope to show that violent conflict can be avoided through structural and behavioural engineering: fix governance, ensure accountability, give credibility to institutions. anchor justice and rule of law.

This book provides an account of how the responsibility to protect (R2P) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) were applied in Kenya. In the aftermath of the disputed presidential election on 27 December 2007, Kenya descended into its worst crisis since independence. The 2007-08 post-election crisis in Kenya was among the first situations in which there was an appeal to both the responsibility to protect and a responsibility to prosecute. Despite efforts to ensure compatibility between R2P and the ICC, the two were far from coherent in this case, as the measures designed to protect the population in Kenya undermined the efforts to prosecute perpetrators. This book will highlight how the African Union-sponsored mediation process effectively brought an end to eight weeks of bloodshed, while simultaneously entrenching those involved in orchestrating the violence. Having secured positions of power, politicians bearing responsibility for the violence set out to block prosecutions at both the domestic and international levels, eventually leading the cases against them to unravel. As this book will reveal, by utilising the machinery of the state as a shield against prosecution, the Government of Kenya reverted to an approach to sovereignty that both R2P and the ICC were specifically designed to counteract. This book will be of interest to students of the Responsibility to Protect, humanitarian intervention, African politics, war and conflict studies and IR/Security Studies in general.

Viral Frictions takes the reader along a trail of intersecting narratives to uncover how and why it is that HIV-related stigma persists in the age of treatment. Pfeiffer convincingly argues that stigma is a socially constructed process co-produced at the nexus of local, national, and global relationships and storytelling about and practices associated with HIV. Based on a decade of fieldwork in one highway trading center in Kenya, Viral Frictions offers compelling stories of stigma and discrimination as a lens for understanding broader social processes, the complexities of globalization and health, and their profound impact on the everyday social lives and relationships of people living through the ongoing HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. This highly engaging book is ideal reading for those interested in teaching and learning about intersectionality, as Pfeiffer meticulously demonstrates how HIV stigma interacts with issues of treatment, race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, social change, and international aid systems.