status quo

Kenya: Why Raila & Ruto remain quiet on land justice issues

in depth

This article is part of the dossier:

Kenya 2022: Who will win the great race?

By Christine Mungai

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Posted on June 20, 2022 09:30

In this Saturday Feb. 9, 2013 photo, residents gather at sundown at ‘Hope’ camp for internally-displaced Kenyans from the Kikuyu tribe, near Nyahururu, in Kenya. The 624 people living at Hope Camp, a spot near the equator in a placed called Laikipia, is an illustration of one of the many lingering effects of the tribe-on-tribe violence that rocked Kenya after its 2007 presidential election. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

For the first time in decades, Kenya’s leading presidential candidates are skirting around the explosive issue of land justice – instead of exploiting it as a way to mobilise voters to their campaigns. Both candidates – for different reasons – have chosen to accept the status quo on legal regime on land rights

The election is entering its final phase, after the candidates, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto announced their running mates – former Attorney General Martha Karua and determined campaigner Rigathi Gachagua.

Both candidates come with their merits and baggage, although Karua seems to helped Odinga more than Gachagua has boosted Ruto. Neither Karua and Gachagua, like their principals, have pronounced on land justice issues.

Flashpoint topic

For decades, the land question has been a flashpoint issue in Kenya’s elections.

Beyond the campaign rhetoric, political fights over land have triggered violent attacks and forcible evictions. That reached its apogee in the 2007 elections when the dispute over the elections morphed into armed clashes in which over 1,200 people were killed and some 600,000 chased from their homes. To date, no one has been convicted

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