(Re)membering Kenya Vol 2

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Description

Out of the first series of public lectures titled (Re) membering Kenya organised by the Volume editors together with Twaweza Communications and supported by the Goethe Institut Kenya, The Ford Foundation and the Institute for International Education, and whose key outcome was the publication of Remembering Kenya Vol.1 (2010) grew a second round of lecture series. The second series took cognisance of the fact that the problems that bedevil Kenya as a nation go far beyond questions of culture and identity that Volume 1 dealt with. Thus, the second presentations revolved mainly around issues of economics, governance and power. The awareness of the role and/or lack of equity and social justice in causing Kenya’s persistent problems informed all these presentations. Issues of how to bring marginalised groups into the mainstream were discussed. This Volume, in part, arises from the second presentations. The authors of chapters attempt to provide answers to the question: what entails (re)membering in post-conflict Kenya? From their work, it is clear that there is a lot to (re)member in Kenya, and many ways in which to reconfigure project Kenya. (Re)membering is re-thinking and re organising our ways of doing things. It entails a juggling of priorities; between peace and reconciliation, peace and justice, and seeking justice and reconciliation without undermining peace, all of which are arduous exercises. Reconciling misconceptions about places, issues and people is part of this reconstitution too. New pathways require being embraced, past mistakes (individual and collective) acknowledged and giving earnest meaning to the vow “never again!” Yet, as observed in this Volume, Kenyans must be vigilant against individuals and groups that have often resisted change. There are also material constraints to the achievement of the various economic activities that come with reconfiguring the Kenyan nation. Worse still there exist certain cultural underpinnings that continue to have a debilitating effect on efforts to forge a sustainable peace after conflict. These aspects require deep reflection and honest work. In part, the contributors to this Volume suggest how it can be done. There is a hint in these chapters that we need to find new organizing spaces and principles on which a ‘new’ Kenya can move forward. Equally, debating the very meanings of social justice and reconciliation against the background of potential conflict should be a project of this endeavor. Questioning and identifying where impunity begun is key to this process. In doing so, we begin liberating ourselves from Kenyan society’s deep-rooted impunity. (Re)membering Kenya, after all, calls for a reconstruction of “the journey to the conflict” in order to find the right balance between the right of remembrance and the duty of forgetfulness.

Sujets

• Anthropology

Informations

• Publié par: Twaweza Communications
• Date de parution: 29 décembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9789966028457
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

(RE)MEMBERING KENYA

VOL.2 Interrogating Marginalization and Governance

Edited by George Gona and Mbu˜ gua waMu˜ ngai

A project by GoetheInstitut Kenya The Ford Foundation Twaweza Communications

(RE)MEMBERING KENYA VOL.2

Publisher: Twaweza Communications Ltd. P.O. Box 66872 –00800 Westlands Twaweza House, Parklands Road Mpesi Lane, Nairobi Kenya www.twawezacommunications.org

Editorial office: Catherine Bosire Design: Iris Buchholz Coverphotography:Mb˜uguawa-M˜ungai Printed: Dr. Cantz’sche Druckerei, Germany

© 20∂3 Twaweza Communications.

ISBN 978- 9966-028- 40-2

Copyright /Permission: The material in this publication is copyrighted. The editors and the publisher grant permission for this work to be reproduced for academic and research purposes as long as the material is reproduced accurately and the source fullycited.

With the support of Goethe-Institut Kenya, The Ford Foundation, Office of Eastern Africa.

(RE)MEMBERING KENYA

VOL.2 Interrogating Marginalization and Governance

Edited by George Gona and Mbu˜gua wa-Mu˜ngai

A project by Goethe-Institut Kenya The Ford Foundation Twaweza Communications

To all those, who care about Kenya, who care to remember Kenya, who care to fully remember Kenya.

Content

8 ∂∂ ∂4 24

58

70

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Acknowledgements Maurice Makoloo, Johannes Hossfeld Foreword George Gona, Mbu˜ gua wa-Mu˜ ngai Introduction Mbu˜ gua wa-Mu˜ ngai Prescript—Out of the Closet: Waridi’s Joys and Struggles

The Politics of Marginalization Phitalis Were Masakhwe Disability Discrimination: A Personal Reflection Hassan Mwakimako Muslims Engaging with the State in the Context of Changing Political Landscape in Kenya Abdirahman Maalim Abass and Francis Mwaura Re-membering the Drylands of Kenya: Integrating ASAL Economies in Vision 2030

Roadblocks to Governance ∂∂4 Kinyanjui Felistus  Citizenship and Nationhood in Post-Independent Kenya ∂32 Katumanga Musambayi  Kenya: Imagined Closed Spaces of the Political Economy of Violence ∂70 Njeri Kinyanjui and Meleckidzedeck Khayesi Mary Exploiting Opportunities in the Matatu Service for Transport Planning in Nairobi, Kenya

 Selected Normative Practices—A Critique ∂90 Kamau Nyokabi  Kenyan Women in the Context of 2008 Post-election Violence: From Exclusion to Participation in Peace Building 206 Gona George Dealing with the Aftermath of the Election Violence of 2007/2008: Kenya’s Dilemmas

228

Notes on Contributors

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Acknowledgements

This book is the second volume of the Re-membering Kenya book series. Putting together a book that grew out of a series of public lectures incurs some debts to the people and institutions that made the work both possible and such an inspiring experi- ence. We acknowledge indebtedness to our funders—the Ford Foundation and Goethe Institute—for supporting our work and enabling us to convene and run the public lecture series in 2008. We thank the Goethe Institute for supporting the two-day workshop in 2011 to review and discuss papers which now appear in this book and others will be published in volume three. The discussions at the workshop were invaluable, refreshing and added value to the final production of this volume. We are grateful to those individuals who accepted to review the papers and whose response became part of the intense discussions at the workshop.

We thank all the participants at this workshop for their generous contribution of time and energy. We are generously indebted to Professor Kimani Njogu, the Director of Twaweza Communications who not only attended the workshop but also was a reader and reviewer of some the papers discussed. We thank Catherine Bosire at Twaweza Communications for tirelessly preparing the final manuscript. She was patient as we did many editorial changes. We are also thankful to Katharina Greven for the initial logistics in organizing the lecture series and Faith Koskei for reminding Dr. Gona of the pending work on Re-membering Kenya . We thank the public for gracing the original talks and for being patient as you waited for the publication of this second volume.

George Gona, ~ ~ Mbugua wa-Mungai Nairobi, September 2013

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