Case Study on Kenyan 2017 General Election

Running Head: The Kenyan 2017 General Election
The Impacts of Elections on the Economic Growth: A Case Study of Kenyan 2017 Election
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The Kenyan 2017 General Election 2
The Impacts of Elections on the Economic Growth: A Case Study of Kenyan 2017 Election
Introduction
The Kenyan economy is one of the world economies that have held the latest general
election. The election took place barely three months ago. This paper shall cover the impacts the
elections have inflicted on the Kenyan economy. Kuo (2016) argued that elections have never
been good for any economy; and thus it is not of expectation that Kenyan economy could have
experienced some different impacts. Kuo pointed out that the 8th August 2017 election was the
greatest economic hurdle that faced the Kenyan economy as it was accompanied by great
uncertainties. The economy holds general elections after every five years where any elected
member can vie for the seat again on the next general election. Kenya has a decentralized system
of governance where power is left on the hands of the county regional leaders; this makes the
number of positions to be filled so many during a general election. The maximum terms an
elected person can serve is a two term period of 10 years.
After an election the leaders serve the nation for four year without any pressure; however
in the 5th year, campaigns start on preparation for the next general election. Both the existing and
new parties start going to their counties to request the people from their region to vote for them
in the coming election. Development is the major basis that determines whether a previous
elected member is going to be chosen again in the upcoming election. In the area where the
leader has seen an increased level of development, the people of this regional has no bound
reelecting such a leader on the upcoming election. On the other hand, regions will lower
development always tend to blame the leader for misusing the funds allocated for developing the
area and thus opt to elect a new leader to bring some change. The leaders always make various
promises to the citizens to make them look more desirable (Kohlmann, 2016). The campaigns for
the last general election started in 2016 and the election date was 8th August 2017. This election
has resulted in negative economic growth on this economy especially the fact that Kenyan
economy have tribal disputes during an election. The situation was worsened in the fact that the
election was nullified by the Kenyan Supreme court on September 1st 2017.
The History of the Kenyan Economic Performance during an Election
According to Douglas and Helmi (2013), Kenya employs a Winner-Take-All election
system. This system has been found to be weak in avoiding ethnic tensions compared to other
systems. The Kenyan economy has unveiled an increased economic performance during the year

The Kenyan 2017 General Election 3
when the campaign for an election is taking place. This is due to the increased spending by
politicians on developments in order to make them look attractive on the eyes of the people with
an aim to secure more votes during the election. During this period, people benefit much from
this increased spending, even the unemployment rate falls on seasonally adjusted basis because
many people are get temporary jobs of facilitating such development. The greatest spending goes
to infrastructure as people always consider good roads, availability of clean water and
electrification which includes street lighting as the biggest visible development. This is not
always a case for the Kenyan economy; an economy like Bangladesh and many others has gone a
similar phase of development during the campaign period (Mukti, 2017).
Fig: Kenyan economic growth history
Source: Tradingeconomics.com (2017)
The graph above is a representation of the economic growth for the Kenyan economy from 2004
to 2017. During this period, Kenya has undergone three general election and a decline in
economic growth is noted in all these elections. The 1st was on 2007 and a sharp decline is
observed. The next was on 2013 and again another decline is observed. The last was in 2017 and
another decline can also be observed.
Loss of Investor’s Confidence during a Kenyan General Election
It is with great concern that it has been noted on the presence of low investors’
confidence during a general election in Kenya. For the past two general elections, the one held
on 2007 and 2013, the opposition leaders did not get satisfied with the results provided by the

The Kenyan 2017 General Election 4
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and resulted in protests that resulted
in inter-tribal mass slaughter and destruction of many businesses. The major election issues
always happen on the presidential position. There is no restriction on the tribe from which the
presidential candidate may come from. However, there are two conflicting tribes, the Kikuyu
where the previous president belong and the Luo where the opposition candidate belong. Raila
Odinga the opposition leader has been the major opposition leader for the last 3 general election
held in Kenya (2007, 2013 and the last election of 2017). During all these three elections, he has
slightly lost all of them to the other opposition leader; however, he has never been satisfied with
any election outcome and have always claimed that the election was rigged. In 2007, he lost to
the previous Kenyan president Emilio Mwai Kibaki.
He protested against this defeat and caused a tribal war in his stronghold areas (Thibon,
Ndeda, Fouéré and Mwangi, 2014) . In a place like Kisumu, Homabay and Kibera his stronghold
where most of the Luo community dominate, all the other tribes were chased away by force and
those who resisted were killed. Their properties were stolen and others were burnt down to ashes.
All the businesses and factories belonging to other tribes but located in these are were all broken
down and intense damage caused on the same. According to Kuo (2016), the Kenyan Investment
mood was destroyed as the economy headed to the 2017 general election as they were practicing
the approach of wait-and-see.
Unemployment Impact of General Election in Kenya
In Kenya, the constitution allows for free movement from one area to another; thus, a
person can live in any part of the country. There are tribal mixes in all areas in the Kenyan
counties. Tribal discrimination has never been an issue in Kenya until the 2007 general election.
After this election, many people whose properties were damaged ended up in tents requesting for
government’s help and they were considered Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) (Lafargue,
2009). These people stayed out of their jobs and businesses and thus became unemployed; they
were expected to remain like this since they couldn’t go back to the areas from where they were
displace from as there was nothing left back that they could have used to restart back their life as
all was down to ashes. They therefore found it better to remain in the IDP camps relying on any
internal and external help that was given to this group. What these people failed to understand is
that these businesses irrespective of the tribe the owners came from were the major source of
employment in these areas. Other than the IDPs, there are also many people who were left