Kenya’s judges do their duty. A pity about its politicians
A political scheme cloaked as constitutional reform fails
BREAKING CONSTITUTIONS is often easier than making them. Kenya’s first two presidents, Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi, took a hatchet to the one negotiated at independence from Britain in 1963. By the time the butchery ended, Kenya was a one-party state run by untouchable kleptocrats. Fixing the damage took decades. Under international and domestic pressure, Moi repealed the provision banning all parties but his own in 1991. But it took 19 more years of bitter struggle before Kenya again had a constitution worthy of the name.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Not above the law”
Middle East & Africa August 28th 2021
- Kenya’s judges do their duty. A pity about its politicians
- Chad’s former strongman, Hissène Habré, dies of covid-19
- Uganda receives its first flight of evacuees from Afghanistan
- Why Afghan officials have washed up in the United Arab Emirates
- The global ambitions of Lebanon’s hard-pressed olive-oil makers
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