Courting the Kalenjin: The failure of dynasticism and the strength of the ODM wave in Kenya's Rift Valley province
Gabrielle Lynch (G.lynch{at}leeds.ac.uk) is a Lecturer in Africa and the Politics of Development at the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds. The arguments in this article are informed by fieldwork undertaken in 2004, 2005, December 2007–January 2008, and July 2008. The author would like to thank Tania Edwards and Susanne Mueller for their helpful comments. The arguments presented were developed in conversations with David Anderson and many friends and interviewees who have made research over the years possible and fruitful.
This article explains the strength of the ‘ODM wave’ in the 2007 Kenyan election and the popular rejection of Daniel arap Moi's call to re-elect President Mwai Kibaki across the Kalenjin areas of the Rift Valley. It examines the election campaigns, voting patterns, and aftermath of the contested election, and reveals why most Kalenjin dismissed Moi's pleas as self-interested and were instead drawn towards the pledges and leadership of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). The article discusses how a strongly ethnicized discourse of ‘persecution’ and ‘bias’ was interwoven with narratives of past and potential ‘injustice’, leading to the vilification of the Kibaki regime and the casting of ODM as the vehicle of ‘meaningful change’. In addition, it argues that local understandings and interpretations of the past and present provide the relevant context for understanding subsequent violence and attacks on the Kikuyu community.