Political Violence in Kenya

Land, Elections, and Claim-Making

Kathleen Klaus

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781108488501
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108800280
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: American Government
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Examining a key puzzle in the study of electoral violence, this study asks how elites organize violence and why ordinary citizens participate. While existing theories of electoral violence emphasize weak institutions, ethnic cleavages, and the strategic use of violence, few specify how the political incentives of elites interact with the interests of ordinary citizens. Providing a new theory of electoral violence, Kathleen F. Klaus analyzes violence as a process of mobilization that requires coordination between elites and ordinary citizens. Drawing on fifteen months of fieldwork in Kenya, including hundreds of interviews and an original survey, Political Violence in Kenya argues that where land shapes livelihood and identity, and tenure institutions are weak, land, and narratives around land, serve as a key device around which elites and citizens coordinate the use of violence. By examining local-level variation during Kenya's 2007–8 post-election violence, Klaus demonstrates how land struggles structure the dynamics of contentious politics and violence.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Maps
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 A Theory of Land and Electoral Violence
• 3 Historical Origins of Electoral Violence
• Part I Determinants of Contentious Land Narratives
• Part II Determinants of Election Violence
• Part III Consequences of Electoral Violence
• Appendix A Interview Protocol and List of Interviews
• Appendix B Household-Level Survey
• Appendix C Additional Regressions
• Appendix D National-level Data on the 2007–2008 Postelection Violence
• Appendix E Data on Settlement Schemes
• References
• Index