Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-dtkg6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-17T12:53:43.743Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Civil society and the consolidation of democracy in Kenya: an analysis of a Catholic parish's efforts in Kibera slum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2010

Christine Bodewes
Christine Bodewes*
Affiliation:
4696 Snow Hill Road, Salisbury, MD 21804, USA
*
Email: bodeweschristine@yahoo.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article tests the theory of advocates who celebrate the potential of civil society to promote and deepen democracy in Africa, by examining whether the human rights ministry of a Catholic parish in Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya was able to consolidate democracy through a civic education programme during 2002–5. It concludes, from an analysis of the social, economic and political environment in Kibera, that parishioners who participated in the programme demonstrated an observable improvement in their democratic values and behaviour at a localised level within their own parish groups. However, civic education did not stimulate most participants to increase their involvement in advocacy and lobbying efforts to hold government officials to account for their abuse of power in Kibera. Parishioners were inhibited from promoting their rights primarily due to fears of violent retaliation by local government officials and politically sponsored youth wingers. Other factors such as apathy, ethnic divisions, limited resources and restrictive church protocols further curtailed parishioners' actions.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 2010 , pp. 547 - 571
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Amnesty International (AI). 2009. Kenya, the Unseen Majority: Nairobi's two million slum dwellers. London: Amnesty International.Google Scholar
Azarya, V. 1994. ‘Civil society and disengagement in Africa’, in Harbeson, & al., Civil Society and the State in Africa, 83–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bannon, A. 2007. ‘Designing a constitution-drafting process: lessons from Kenya’, Yale Law Journal 116: 1824–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, P. 2009. ‘Faith engaging politics: the preaching of the kingdom of God’, in Knighton, , Religion and Politics in Kenya, 96–120.Google Scholar
Bodewes, C. 2005. Parish Transformation in Urban Slums: voices of Kibera, Kenya. Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa.Google Scholar
Burgeap, Seueca, Runji, & Partners, . 2002. ‘Kibera urban environmental sanitation project’, unpublished report prepared for the Ministry of Local Government and Nairobi City Council.Google Scholar
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE). 2006. Listening to the Poor? Housing rights in Nairobi. Geneva: COHRE, available at: http://www.cohre.org/store/attachments/COHRE%20Listening%20to%20the%20Poor.pdfGoogle Scholar
Chabal, P. & Daloz, J. 1999. Africa Works: disorder as political instrument. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Chazan, N. 1992. ‘Africa's democratic challenge’, World Policy Journal 9, 2: 279–307.Google Scholar
Cottrell, J. & Ghai, Y. 2007. ‘Constitution making and democratization in Kenya (2000–2005)’, Democratization 14, 1: 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamond, L. 1992. The Democratic Revolution: struggles for freedom and pluralism in the developing world, perspectives on freedom. New York: Freedom House.Google Scholar
Diamond, L. 1994. ‘Toward democratic consolidation’, Journal of Democracy 5, 3: 4–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fatton, R. 1992. Predatory Rule, State and Civil Society in Africa. Boulder, CO: L. Rienner.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fatton, R. 1995. ‘Africa in the age of democratization: the civic limitations of civil society’, African Studies Review 38, 2: 67–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foley, M. & Edwards, B.. 1996. ‘The paradox of civil society’, Journal of Democracy 7, 3: 38–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gifford, P. 2009. Christianity, Politics and Public Life in Kenya. London: Hurst & Co.Google Scholar
Githiga, G. 2001. The Church as the Bulwark against Authoritarianism: development of church and state relations in Kenya with particular reference to the years after political independence 1963–1992. Oxford: Regnum.Google Scholar
Harbeson, J. 1994. ‘Civil society and political renaissance in Africa’, in Harbeson, & al, . Civil Society and the State in Africa, 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harbeson, J., Rothchild, D. & Chazan, N., eds. 1994. Civil Society and the State in Africa. Boulder, CO: L. Rienner.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasfir, N. 1998. ‘Civil society, the state and democracy in Africa’, in Kasfir, N., ed. Civil Society and Democracy in Africa: critical perspectives. London: Frank Cass, 123–49.Google Scholar
Kassimir, R. 1998. ‘The social power of religious organisation and civil society: the Catholic Church in Uganda’, in Kasfir, N., ed. Civil Society and Democracy in Africa: critical perspectives. London: Frank Cass, 54–83.Google Scholar
Knighton, B., ed. 2009. Religion and Politics in Kenya: essays in honor of a meddlesome priest. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuperus, T. 1999. ‘Building democracy: an examination of religious associations in South Africa and Zimbabwe’, Journal of Modern Africa Studies 37, 4: 643–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Law Society of Kenya (LSK). 2002. Report: a mission to Kibera. Nairobi: Law Society of Kenya Land Reform Programme.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 2002. ‘Civil society in African contexts: reflections on the usefulness of a concept’, Development and Change 33, 4: 569–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lonsdale, J. 2009. ‘Compromised critics: religion in Kenya's politics’, in Knighton, , Religion and Politics in Kenya, 58–94.Google Scholar
Lynch, G. 2006. ‘The fruits of perception: “ethnic politics” and the case of Kenya's constitutional referendum’, African Studies 65, 2: 233–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mbaria, J. 2004. ‘Pope stopped Kenyan slum demolitions’, East African, 15–21 March: 1–3.Google Scholar
Mute, L. 2002. ‘Legal-political transition in Kenya: the role of civic education’, in Mute, L., Kioko, W. & Akivaga, K., eds. Building an Open Society: the politics of transition in Kenya. Nairobi: Claripress, 126–56.Google Scholar
Mutua, M. 2008. Kenya's Quest for Democracy: taming leviathan. Boulder, CO: L. Rienner.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nasong'o, S. 2005. Contending Political Paradigms in Africa: rationality and the politics of democratization in Kenya and Zambia. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ndegwa, S. 1996. The Two Faces of Civil Society: NGOs and politics in Africa. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press.Google Scholar
Ngunyi, M. 1995. ‘Religious institutions and political liberalization in Kenya’, in Gibbon, P., ed. Markets, Civil Society and Democracy in Kenya. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 121–77.Google Scholar
Orvis, S. 2004. ‘Kenyan civil society: bridging the urban-rural divide?’, Journal of Modern African Studies 41, 2: 247–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osborn, M. 2008. ‘Fueling the flames: rumour and politics in Kenya’, Journal of Eastern African Studies 2, 2: 315–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabar-Friedman, G. 2002. Church, State, and Society in Kenya: from mediation to opposition, 1963–1993. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
UN-Habitat. 2005. Forced Evictions – Toward Solutions? First report of the advisory group on forced evictions to the executive director of UN-Habitat. Nairobi: UN-Habitat.Google Scholar
Von Doepp, P. 2002. ‘Liberal visions and actual power in grassroots civil society: local churches and women's empowerment in rural Malawi’, Journal of Modern African Studies 40, 2: 273–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Newspaper

East African, Nairobi.Google Scholar

Interviews (all conducted in Nairobi)

Chaya, Pamela, OHR Team, 22.9.2008.Google Scholar
Kadenyeka, Mercy, OHR Team, 20.9.2008.Google Scholar
Mulinge, Joanne, OHR lawyer, 22.9.2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musa, Rose, Saturday group member, 1.10.2008.Google Scholar
Mwangi, Monica, volunteer lawyer, 21.9.2008.Google Scholar
Namenje, , Ignatius OHR Team, 3.10.2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nandwa, Flora, SCC member, 29.8.2008.Google Scholar
Nderi, James, Saturday group member, 30.9.2008.Google Scholar
Nduku, Monica, Saturday group member, 29.8.2008.Google Scholar
Njoroge, Stephen, Saturday group member, 29.8.2008.Google Scholar
Okioga, Kerubo, volunteer and OHR lawyer, 24.9.2008.Google Scholar
Otieno, Rose, volunteer lawyer, 27.9.2008.Google Scholar
Somba, Simon, catechist, 22.9.2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waema, Francis, parish leader and SCC member, 29.9.2008.Google Scholar
Wanjiku, Mary, Saturday group member, 28.9.2008.Google Scholar