By invitation only: Forum on Kenya's 2013 elections

Twaweza Communications, in partnership with the Heinrich Böll Stiftung and the Goethe Institut Nairobi, will hold a one day forum on KENYA’S 2013 ELECTIONS: PERSPECTIVES FOR DEMOCRATIC PRACTICE.

The Forum will take place on Tuesday 22nd April 2014

The objectives of the Forum are:

1. Contribute to knowledge generation about the 2013 elections in Kenya.
2. Share lessons learnt on elections, democracy and citizenship.

Moderated discussions will seek to answer some key questions: Which factors may have been considered by voters as they chose their leaders in the 2013 General Election? Were decisions made on the basis of land and property, identity and belonging, persuasiveness of campaign strategies or global politics? Did security institutions determine the outcome and if so how? What about the international criminal court? How did gender issues play out in the elections considering that the new constitutional, legal, and institutional framework sought to break away from discriminatory and exclusionary practices of the past that have sidelined women in politics and led to their consistent underrepresentation? 

There will also be conversations about the media and the Supreme Court decision as well as the tension between the pursuit of peace and stability in fragile states and the need for justice and democracy.

After the 2007/2008 electoral violence Twaweza Communications released a number of publications including Healing the Wound: Narratives about the 2007/2008 Post-Election Violence in Kenya; Defining Moments:  Reflections on Citizenship, Violence and the 2007 Elections in Kenya; Re-Membering Kenya Vol.1: Identity, Culture and Freedom, Re-Membering Kenya Vol.2: Interrogating Marginalization and Governance. These publications   have informed debate about events of that period.

It is anticipated that during the proposed Forum the organizers will commission articles for an Edited Volume on the 2013 Elections.