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Land and the Quest for a Democratic State in Kenya: Bringing Citizens Back In

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

John W. Harbeson
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Abstract:

Kenya's current constitutional moment has included both the first pop ularly ratified constitution and its first postindependence comprehensive land reform policy. The roughly temporally parallel processes that brought about these two signal achievements have inserted the interests of ordinary Kenyans into this constitutional moment in a way that elections and constitutional ratification alone would not have, reflecting more than two decades of civil society pressure. The new democratized land tenure policy removes land allocation decisions from pervasive executive branch abuse and vests them in a democratically elected Parliament. In this fundamental respect, the Kenya constitutional implementation process appears to privilege procedural and deliberative democracy as the source of substantive democratic land tenure outcomes, and by extension, the terms on which Kenyans relate to each other and their leaders. Upon the outcomes of these deliberations may well hinge the future stability as well as the democratic quality of the Kenyan state.

Résumé:

Résumé:

L'état constitutionnel présent au Kenya résulte à la fois de la première constitution ratifiée par le peuple, et de la première réforme globale du territoire mise en place depuis l'indépendance. Le parallèle temporel existant entre ces deux évènements importants semble être le résultat d'un engagement des intérêts des citoyens kenyans que les élections et la ratification constitutionnelle seuls n'auraient pas pu produire, reflétant ainsi plus de deux décennies de pressions populaires. La nouvelle politique démocratisée d'attribution des terrains protège les décisions d'allocation contre la corruption envahissante des pouvoirs exécutifs et les remet aux mains d'un parlement élu démocratiquement. Dans son aspect fondamental, le procédé d'implémentation constitutionnel au Kenya semble privilégier une démocratic procédurale et délibérative pour prendre des décisions concernant la répartition démocratique des terrains, et par extension, pour établir les termes des relations des citoyens entre eux et avec leurs représentants. La future stabilité et la qualité démocratique de l'état kenyan dépendront probablement des résultats de ces délibérations.

Type
ASR Focus: The Political Economy of Democratic Reform in Kenya
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , April 2012 , pp. 15 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2012

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