This engaging reassessment of postcolonial Kenyan political history develops a theory of historical change and the role of leading figures in it. Combining political economy with political sociology it demonstrates how violence following the contested presidential election of 2007 represented, to a much more extreme extent, a continuation of the pattern of political contestation that has repeated itself throughout Kenya's political history. Like many other sub-Saharan countries, Kenya's authoritarianism and the predatory deployment of the state has been the predominant feature of the...

This engaging reassessment of postcolonial Kenya argues that the country’s political turmoil over the last fifteen years is a continuation of repeating patterns of political contestation and conflict across Kenya’s history.