Civil Society And The Politics Of Constitutional Reforms In Kenya: A Case Study Of The National Convention Executive Council (NCEC)
Abstract
This paper examines and analyses the role of the National Convention
Executive Council (NCEC) in engaging the Kenyan state for constitutional
reforms. It argues that although NCEC (through mass action) was able to
force the regime to initiate dialogue with the opposition and civil society
formations, it did not succeed in engendering state commitment to the letter
and spirit of accords emergent out of these engagements.
The paper attributes this to two core factors: that is the regimes ability to
divide and successfully isolate the radical formation from the mainstream
opposition and the religious sector co-optation, economic motivation and
diplomatic duplicity and the inability of NCEC’s leadership to interpret social
process correctly, to the extent of evolving right institutional design and
programmatic responses for mobilisation; and engagement of state.
Citation
Series on Alternative Research in East Africa (SAREAT)Publisher
Department of Political Science, University of Nairobi