The Relationship Between Change in Political Leadership and Economic Development in Africa: a Case Study of Kenya

Abstract

The research study seeks to examine how change in political leadership affects economic development in Africa using a case study of Kenya. Examples from various African countries show that, political parties are used as tools to get power but leaders do not implement the manifestos after election. The study seeks to underscore, African leadership seems to have taken a path of ethnic patronage. The main argument in this study is centered on the contention that good political leadership is a universal phenomenon that is not tied to prevailing and/or fashionable development traditions such as capitalism and socialism or both. What it suggests is that what a country’s political leaders want to achieve for their citizens is what counts and not structures or institutions.