THE AFRICAN SAGE

Uhuru became president on March 4 th 2013. His election was not supported by several civil society organizations as well as western powers due to pending ICC cases. The 2013 election equally was contested and some believe that the threshold of 50% +1 was not met by the president. Consequently, his election was contested in court with organizations like AFRICOG taking a leading role in pointing out election irregularities.   The ICC cases have dominated UHURU’s focus in the initial years of his rule. Equally, the war the Kibaki regime started by sending troops into Somalia has defined Uhuru’s concerns. The tyranny of numbers in parliament has enabled UHURU to bulldoze through many issues of national importance. Ethnic mobilization in the run up to March 2013 elections meant high levels of ethnic polarization in the country. There were cases of candidates being chased from certain areas in the course of campaigns. Ruto was chased away from Kisii, Raila was chased away from Meru

The 1990s were characterized by high level of civil society based defiance in Kenya. There was the clamor for democracy, human rights issues, and economic issues that defined people’s engagement with the government. Moi’s regime suffered due to the world oil crisis that started in 1973, the end of the cold war and the politics of aid that saw donors play a significant role in national politics. Introduction of structural adjustment programmes and related failures strained relations between the state and international development actors. Consequently, external actors buoyed by the democratization wave pushed African countries (Kenya included) towards multi-party democracy and regular elections. The unwillingness of regimes to adopt the democratic ideals led to international actors working with agitators, activists by funding the programs of CSOs by anti- regime activists. Pro-democracy organizations and individuals received a lot of support from democratic networks from Europe and