The Role of Intellectuals in Building Democratic Political Culture in Africa: a Case Study of Kenya
Abstract
Intellectuals in the past and present have been very instrumental in shaping the minds of the
people. They have the capacity to root out some of the deep rooted cultures and norms in the
society through critical thinking and re-shaping the way of a people by creating new norms. They
have successful done this indifferent ways; policy making, public dialogue, active participation
in political ventures among many others. In the fight for democratization of Africa, intellectuals
have also taken up several roles; activism, reformists, advocacy and actual engagement in
political matters. They do all this with the aim of improving people‟s welfare and promote
human development. The general objective of this research project therefore was to determine
the role of intellectuals in building democratic political culture in Africa using Kenya as case
study. The specific objectives of the study were; to determine whether a democratic political
culture will promote human development in Africa, to establish the role of intellectuals in
building a democratic political culture in Africa and lastly to determine the challenges and
prospects of building a democratic political culture in Kenya. The study was guide by the
following objectives; democratic political culture in Africa will promote human development,
intellectuals have a role to play in building Africa‟s democratic political culture and lastly there
are no prospects to building democratic political culture in Kenya. The research project was
based on liberalism theory which is embedded on the principles of majority rule, civil liberty and
democracy. The study found out that the context in which the intellectual engage with the state
and the society has changed with the passing of time and their roles in democratization have also
evolved. New challenges and new prospects also present themselves as they try to build
democratic political culture. On the citizen side, there is also no ownership of the process of
democratization. The study recommends that modern day intellectuals create a theoretical
framework that will help in Africanizing democracy to create ownership of the process and the
democratic culture.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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