Kenya after 50: Reconfiguring Historical, Political, and Policy Milestones ed. by Michael Mwenda Kithinji, Mickie Mwanzia Koster, Jerome P. Rotich (review)

On December 12, 2013, Kenya celebrated fifty years of independence. A series of publications celebrated the occasion. Among them is Kenya after 50: Reconfiguring Historical, Political, and Policy Milestones coedited by Michael Mwenda Kithinji, Mickie Mwanzia Koster, and Jerome P. Rotich. In a fifteen-page introduction, the coeditors point out that the “golden jubilee anniversary presented an opportune moment for scholars and other curious observers on Kenya to reflect on the key milestones in the nation’s post-colonial experience and also to evaluate its future prospects” (p. 10).

The volume originated in “Kenya at Fifty: Lessons for the Future,” a conference of the Kenya Scholars and Studies Association, which took place at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, on September 6 and 7, 2013. The event assembled “a cross-section of scholars on Kenya to deliberate on the country’s post-colonial experience” (p. 1). This publication is the first volume of a two-volume project. All three editors are university-based professors on US campuses, with significant publishing records, and recipients of prestigious scholarly awards. The eleven contributors are also accomplished scholars, some based on the African continent.

Published in Palgrave Macmillan’s African Histories and Modernities series—with distinguished professors Toyin Falola (University of Texas at Austin) and Matthew M. Heaton (Virginia Tech) as series editors—the book has a compartmental arrangement. For easy perusal and sensible intellectual categorization, it is divided into two parts: “Contesting History and Memory” and “Reassessing Politics and Policies.” The introduction covers a variety of topics: the conceptual framework of the publication (pp. 1–2); contested history and memories (pp. 2–3); the end of colonial rule and its lingering effects (pp. 3–4); Jomo Kenyatta, independence, and political competition (pp. 4–5); postcolonial political repression and corruption (pp. 5–6); Somalia and the northern frontier (pp. 6–7); President Moi’s rule (pp. 7–8); a reassessment of policies and politics (pp. 8–9); the end of KANU rule and the rise of the NARC (pp. 9–10); postelection violence (pp. 10–11); and the International Criminal Court (pp. 11–15).

Each contributor has provided high-quality research for the assigned chapters, which discuss preindependence Mau Mau and postindependence political exigencies, but the section that offers an entirely fresh overview is the discussion of Kenya’s postelection violence, which attracted the attention of the International Criminal Court. Uhuru Kenyatta, a brilliant and well-meaning president, and William Ruto, his vice president, were among six Kenyans targeted by the court; the others were Henry Kosegy, Francis Muthaura, Mohammed Hussein Ali, and Joshua arap Sang. In the end, the two top leaders were set free for want of credible evidence.

The conclusion (pp. 262–63) provides fresh details about Kenya’s defense and foreign policy, which are described as being “now inextricably linked,” mutually reinforcing “one another due to the impact of globalization on domestic politics” (p. 262). Kenya’s novel military interventions, especially in Somalia, reportedly prompted the al-Shabaab terrorist massacres at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi and elsewhere. Readers are informed: “This is a characteristic that is likely to persist in the defense and foreign policy-making processes for as long as Kenya is faced with the new security dilemma that produces a vicious cycle of transnational security risks” (p. 263).

The coeditors and contributors are to be commended for their fine contributions, which promote African history in a variety of ways. Their volume will benefit mainstream historians, political scientists, and individuals interested in Kenyan political history.