| dc.description.abstract | Since June 1990, a battle has been raging over political pluralism in
Kenya, On one side is a movement dedicated to restoring multiparty
democracy and freeing a once-vibrant economy that is now staggering
under the weight of statism and corruption. On the other is President
Daniel arap Moi, a longtime enemy of free political competition who
came to power in 1978 and imposed a constitutional ban on multiparty
politics four years later.
The reform movement is led by an assortment of lawyers, Christian
clergymen, and politicians who have concluded that unless democracy is
restored, Kenya faces certain disaster, possibly even a bloody civil war.
Committed to working peacefully for change, the reformers hope to
forestall the possibility of a military coup or sectional rebellion designed
to remove the current regime. Africa has seen too many such violent
upheavals in the three decades since decolonization, they believe, and
few have done much to help the cause of multiparty democracy. The reformers hold instead that the methods used to effect changes are as
important as the changes themselves. They want peaceful change like that
recently witnessed in Czechoslovakia and Benin, and now promised in
the Republic of Congo, where a national conference recently hammered
out plans for a transition to democracy. The goal is to restore the
constitutional principles Kenya adopted in 1963, with the addition of
safeguards intended to prevent the reemergence of one-party dictatorship.
Africa has recently seen several countries move either to restore
democracy where it was banished or to establish it where it has never
been known. In Kenya, however, President Moi has declared that oneparty
rule will not end, and has threatened to deal "firmly" with those
who advocate change. Yet intensified repression is having no effect. The
democracy movement continues to press its case, and a showdown with
the government is bound to occur soon. The movement has organized
demonstrations and other forms of civil disobedience, to which the
government has reacted with sometimes deadly force. It seems likely that
once the armed forces comprehend how profound and widespread
opposition to the current regime truly is, they will withdraw their support
from Moi's one-party dictatorship, thus effectively sealing its doom.
Although grimmer scenarios remain possible, this writer believes that a
version of the Benin model will be followed. In this report, I discuss the
current situation, its causes, and how the movement has grown. | en |
