Video: Violence, Politics, Civil Society

Historian David Anderson, Professor in African Politics and Director of the African Studies Centre at Oxford, was at NAI last week to deliver a talk he titled, with deliberate provocation:

Violence and Politics in Kenya's Uncivil Society

He made some useful points in his narrative of the events since the post-election crisis. But I disagreed strongly with two of his major arguments: that political participation in Kenya is driven by what he terms "competitive authoritarianism", and that the Kenya crisis was generated by an election that was "too close to call."

In my response, I addressed some of his major ommissions: the underlying economic drivers of the political crisis, the long-term issues that fuelled the violent conflict in December 2007 and January 2008. And highlighted other important factors in the debate on Kenya's current political impasse - including the recent sex strike called by a coalition of Kenyan women's organizations.

Watch the video here.

First 45 minutes: David Anderson
Next 20 minutes: My response
Next 30 minutes: Q and A