Social Movements and Socio-Political Change in Africa: The Ufungamano Initiative and Kenyan Constitutional Reform Struggles (1999–2005)

Abstract

This article analyses the Ufungamano Initiative, a broad-based movement involved in constitutional reform struggles in Kenya. By analysing the rise, operations, achievements, and challenges of the Initiative, I argue that contemporary constitutional reform struggles in Kenya were societal responses to an avaricious political and economic class. It is further argued that the movement resulted from a fragmented elite consensus that widened political opportunities for contentious politics and therefore forced concessions for popular engagement in re-defining the relationship between the people and the political class. Ultimately, the Ufungamano Initiative's power eroded as a result of multiple competing parochial interests in the movement.Résumé Ce document analyse l'initiative d'Ufungamano, un mouvement offrant tout l'éventail de produits impliqué dans des luttes de réforme constitutionnelle au Kenya. En analysant l'élévation, les opérations, les accomplissements et les défis de l'initiative, j'argue du fait que les luttes contemporaines de réforme constitutionnelle au Kenya étaient des réponses sociales à une classe politique et économique avare. On lui discute en outre que le mouvement a résulté d'un consensus réduit en fragments d'élite qui a élargi des occasions politiques pour la politique controversable et a donc forcé des concessions pour l'enclenchement populaire en redéfinissant le rapport entre les personnes et la classe politique. Finalement, la puissance de l'initiative d'Ufungamano érodée en raison des intérêts paroissiaux de concurrence de multiple dans le mouvement.Zusammenfassung Dieses Papier analysiert die Ufungamano Initiative, eine mit einer breiten Basis Bewegung, die in Verfassungsreformkämpfe in Kenia mit einbezogen wird. Indem ich den Aufstieg, die Betriebe, die Ausführungen und die Herausforderungen der Initiative analysiere, argumentiere ich, dass zeitgenössische Verfassungsreformkämpfe in Kenia gesellschaftliche Antworten zu einer geizigen politischen und ökonomischen Kategorie waren. Es wird weiter argumentiert, dass die Bewegung aus einer zersplitterten Ausleseübereinstimmung resultierte, die politische Gelegenheiten für streitsüchtige Politiken verbreiterte und folglich Zugeständnisse für populäre Verpflichtung zwang, wenn es das Verhältnis zwischen Leuten und der politischen Kategorie neu definierte. Schließlich die Energie der Ufungamano Initiative abgefressen resultierend aus konkurrierenden parochialen Interessen der Mehrfachverbindungsstelle an der Bewegung.Resumen Este papel analiza la iniciativa de Ufungamano, un movimiento amplio implicado en luchas de la reforma constitucional en Kenia. Analizando la subida, las operaciones, los logros y los desafíos de la iniciativa, sostengo que las luchas contemporáneas de la reforma constitucional en Kenia eran respuestas sociales a una clase política y económica avariciosa. Se discute más a fondo que el movimiento resultó de un consenso hecho fragmentos de la élite que ensanchó las oportunidades políticas para las políticas discutibles y ...

Emergence of inter-identity alliances in struggles for transformation of the Kenyan constitution

“…This question, though pertinent, is beyond the purview of the present paper. Nonetheless, one can say here, as has been argued elsewhere, that class, religious and ethnic cleavages played a crucial role in the collapse and ultimate abortion of the constitution reform project in the 2005 constitution referendum (Mati 2012a;2012b;2013). The tools that destroyed these alliances had class, generational as well as gender dimensions and came to be displayed at different times in the constitution reform contentions.…”

“…Moreover, even when alliances between movements from below and those of middle classes emerge, resultant struggles cannot necessarily have a common coherent storyline and are beset with principlesetting challenges. In addition, literature on interclass relations reminds us that alliances between movements from below and middleclass activists are problematic, fragile and mostly short lived (see for example Gurney 1994;Alves 1989;Clark 2004;Mati 2012a;2012b;2015).…”

“…This fragility is further a product of the inconsistency of the attitudes of the middleclass towards the lower classes (Clark 2004;Mati 2015). Specifically, as has been shown in the analysis of the ambiguous relationship of movements from below and middleclass activists in Kenya's constitutional reform struggles, the middleclass leadership of these movements always embraced the less threatening alternatives each time a crisis was created by violent demonstrations in support of calls for reforms (see for example , Mati 2012a;2012b;2015;Mutunga 1999). Given these cleavages, participation in social movements mostly 'occurs along homogeneous networks and this tends to reproduce the homogeneity of a movement' and networks of horizontal class-based movements (Clark 2004, p.27).…”

“…This movement had extraordinary mass appeal, especially among the urban poor, and a complex politics of inter-ethnic, religious, gender, generational and class relations (Mati 2012a;2012b). The multiple identity-based alliances in the Kenyan constitution movement presents an interesting case for examining dynamic relationships between the various dimensions of these movements from below and middleclass formations (sometimes with the support of factions of different elite groups) in these struggles.…”

Antinomies in the struggle for the transformation of the Kenyan constitution (1990–2010)

“…3 These developments were precipitated by widespread human rights abuses targeting lawyers representing those agitating for political pluralism. These lawyers, some of whom had made a name representing the dissident intelligentsia and soldiers prosecuted for their role in the aborted 1982 coup, faced the same fate as their clients Á harassment, abduction, imprisonment, assassination, loss of livelihood and/or exile (Mati 2012;Mutiga 2010;Friedrich Ebert Stiftung 2003). 4 Under these circumstances, for these lawyers the struggle was a matter of individual survival.…”