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Explaining the (local) ethnic census: subnational variation in ethnic politics in Kenyan elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2022

Kirk A. Harris
Kirk A. Harris*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Susquehanna University, 514 University Avenue, Selinsgrove, PA, 17870, USA
*
Email: harrisk@susqu.edu
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Abstract

Why do elections in some ethnically diverse constituencies resemble an ethnic census, while in others ethnicity plays a less prominent role? Prior literature on ethnic bloc voting in Africa suggests that political parties acquire ethnic ‘labels’ that tacitly signal which groups belong to the party. In ethnic census-style elections, voters and politicians then use ethnicity as a heuristic for deciding which party to support. However, ethnic censuses are not the only possible outcome in diverse constituencies. Links between ethnic identities and political parties can create a disconnect between locally and nationally relevant identities that affects the dynamics of local elections. Drawing on data from over 160 semi-structured, qualitative interviews and detailed election results in four ethnically diverse Kenyan parliamentary constituencies, I show how local constructions of ethnic difference mediate the effects of national political dynamics and shape patterns of political competition in parliamentary elections, affecting the behaviour of politicians and voters.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , June 2022 , pp. 149 - 173
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Research for this project was supported with funding from a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation (#1423998), the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University, and Susquehanna University. While conducting field research for this project, I was a research associate at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Nairobi; my thanks to Professor Winnie V. Mitullah and, IDS staff and students for their advice and comments on the research process and initial findings. Many thanks to Lauren M. MacLean, Jennifer N. Brass and Aditi Malik for their advice and comments on prior versions of this paper, as well as to the panel chairs, discussants and participants of the 2018 American Political Science Association Annual Meeting. Thank you to Victor Rateng, Brandon Wright, Caroline Beohm and Megan Cantwell for their assistance compiling and coding Kenyan election data. I would also like to thank the JMAS editors and anonymous reviewers for their feedback on this manuscript. Thanks most of all to everyone in Kenya who hosted me and offered advice, guidance or assistance, and who responded graciously to my questions.

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