Political Economy Analysis of Kenya

Norad has carried out a study for the Norwegian Embassy in Kenya to improve the Embassy's strategic approach to governance. Geir Sundet of Scanteam and Eli Moen of Norad made  the study with the assistance of Tiberius Barasa, of the Nairobi based Institute of Policy Analysis and Research, and a reference group of Norad advisers and external resource persons.

The report presents a political economy analysis which is informed by an analytical approach to state legitimacy recently developed by OECD/DAC. The approach proposes that the focus in countries in fragile situations should be on state legitimacy and state-society relations.

The political economy analysis is set in a historic context. It shows how the state-society relations have been under strain since independence due to a widening gap between the ruling elites and the citizens and the citizens' the lack of trust in public institutions.

The legitimacy approach illustrates how, in the present Kenyan context, there is a real risk of assistance to Government aiding the further entrenchment of the current elites, rather than improving state-society relations. Assistance to civil society is also not without risk, as most of the present civil society organisations (CSOs) are urban based and controlled by members of the same national elites. Donors are suggested to engage in people's participation in public affairs at the local level, for example, through CSOs that are membership based or represent the interests of local groups. Engagement at the local level, however, presents problems as there has been a continuous process of centralisation of power since independence. Priority could also be on national reconciliation after the trauma of the post-election violence.