Unhindered by the rule of law: ethnic terrorism and the 2007 Kenyan presidential election

Abstract

The 2007 presidential elections in Kenya were followed by more than 1,000 deaths and the forcible displacement of perhaps 350,000. This was the result, in part, of frustrations from the miscounting that assured President Kibaki's re-election, and the ensuing violent repression of protest and dissent. Most of these deaths and dislocations, however, were caused by ethnic terrorism, undertaken periodically by Kenyan politicians since the 1991 transition to what Paul Collier labels 'democrazy'. Ethnic terrorism, part of the dynamic of violence that often plagues democratisation in the poorest nations, seeks to advance the fortunes of one ethnic group by fostering a militant, fearful identity, and uses extreme violence to spur ethnic cleansing, to the political advantage of its patrons. This long-term dynamic in Kenya has featured widespread use of tribal militias, sexual violence, and impunity for its perpetrators, and will likely continue, unless Kenya's political class complies with the Waki Report, which calls for the organisers and financiers of the violence to be prosecuted.

Terrorism and lethal moralism in the United States and United Kingdom, 1970–2017

“…To a more limited degree, a similar ideology of hatred and bigotry has prevailed among Black separatists and White extremists, many of whom have viewed their racial differences as chronic, permanent, and essentially irreconcilable. Other terrorist research has shown that such ‘ethnic terrorism’ tends to embrace the lethal moralism described here as well (Snow ), with the ethno‐religious sectarian violence associated with The Troubles providing a classic example. As Senechal de la Roche () has argued, the greater the degree of social polarization separating adversaries, in combination with the chronicity of the alleged deviance (e.g., being of the wrong ethnicity or an apostate), the greater the likelihood and more lethal the level of collective violence such as terrorism.…”