2. Africa’s Governance Imperatives: How Kenya Has Responded

Public policy theory is not settled. It is driven by practice, the result being that there are many theoretical interpretations available from the experience of already developed countries. The challenge for the study of public policy in Africa is to find the most suitable ways of interpreting policymaking in countries that are structured so differently from those developed countries. This chapter focuses on the fundamental governance imperatives in Africa and how Kenya has responded to these challenges. It highlights the prevalence of a “natural society”, one that is grounded in consumption and the rights that follow in terms of sharing, and the presence of a “state-nation”, one where those in power can lay claim to being the rights-holders. As a country already moving on to middle-income status and the governance obligations that follow, Kenya faces these challenges in more direct ways than most other African countries. Taking the 2010 Constitution as a starting point, the chapter discusses how Kenya has responded and how far it has come as judged by the Building Bridges Initiative Report and the politics of implementing the new constitution.