Fredrick O. Wanyama

Reinventing the Wheel? African Cooperatives in a Liberalized Economic Environment

∗∗: Cooperative development in Africa can be said to have traversed two main eras: the era of state control and that of liberalization. The first era lasted up to the early 1990s and saw the origin and substantial growth of cooperatives on the continent. During that period, different models of cooperative development were introduced on the continent. We distinguish a unified cooperative model, a social economy model, a social movement model, a producers’ model and an indigenous model. But in all cases, cooperatives were engulfed into state politics. However, little is known about the impact of liberalization measures on these models. Our research in 11 African countries reveals that cooperatives in Africa have survived the market forces and continued to grow in number and membership. We see a slow but sure erosion of the unified model and the adoption of a social economy model. Cooperatives in Africa are re-examining their organizational forms and diversifying their activities in response to members’ interests and needs. ∗ Email: fwanyama@hotmail.com; patrick.develtere@hiva.kuleuven.be; Ignace.Pollet@hiva.kuleuven.be ∗∗ Resume en fin d’article; Zusammenfassung am Ende des Artikels; resumen al final del articulo. C

Electoral violence during party primaries in Kenya

ABSTRACT Since the restoration of multi-party democracy in Kenya in 1991, elections have witnessed intra-party violence during the primaries for selecting parliamentary and civic seats candidates. This article addresses the question of why electoral violence occurs during party primaries in Kenya and argues that violence is an outcome of the organization of political parties, which has revolved around personalities identified with ethno-regional interests rather than institutionalism. The upshot has been the absence of party institutionalization to establish structures for recruitment of members and organization of primaries. Such organizational weaknesses have denied parties the capacity to match the intense competition for tickets of ethno-regional dominant parties that guarantees nominees to win seats in their strongholds. Intra-party violence has followed. The article submits that intra-party electoral violence in Kenya is a function of the politics of clientelism and ethnicity, both of which have severely hampered the institutionalization of political parties and their capacity to cope with the stiff competition for the tickets of ethno-regional dominant parties.