KenyaOnAShoeString: Real Advice for Real Kenyans

When Kenya descended into bloodshed in the wake of the 2007 general election, the world watched in disbelief. Over 1,300 people were killed, hundreds of thousands were displaced, families were shattered, homes torched, and neighbors turned against each other overnight. We called it election violence. But was it? The truth is more uncomfortable than the slogans, the press briefings, or the reconciliatory church prayers we clung to in the aftermath. What happened in 2007/08 was not simply about a stolen vote. It was the cracking open of decades-old wounds — social, economic, tribal, and political — that we, as a country, had consistently refused to face. We blamed the devil. We called for peace. We urged forgiveness — often from the very people who had been violated. But we never stopped to ask: What were we really forgiving? What had we truly understood? The Road to Rupture: Seeds Sown Over Decades To understand the violence of 2007/08, we must step back — far back. Land : At the heart ...

The Grand Coalition Government of 2008 was born out of national crisis — a desperate answer to a contested election and a country teetering on the edge of civil war. It was not a triumph, but a truce. And while it succeeded in restoring calm, the scars it left behind run deep and remain largely unhealed. For many, this was a turning point not just in politics, but in the national psyche. The choices made in that era continue to shape how Kenya governs, how it spends, how it reconciles — or fails to — and how we as individuals have come to fear conflict more than we demand accountability. A Deal That Changed Everything Brokered under international pressure after the disputed 2007 elections and the horrific post-election violence that followed, the Grand Coalition Government brought together political rivals Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga in an uneasy power-sharing agreement. On paper, it was a masterstroke of diplomacy. In practice, it was a bloated compromise that planted the idea that p...

Mwai Kibaki often slips through the cracks of memory — not because he was invisible, but because his style was quiet, measured, and academic. A sharp contrast to the paternalism of Moi or the revolutionary tone of Kenyatta, Kibaki led like a man doing his job rather than building a legacy. But his impact on Kenya’s economic and institutional life is profound — and deeply complicated. This article explores Mwai Kibaki the man, the economist, the accidental reformer, and the reluctant politician — and how his presidency became a study in paradox: technocratic success shadowed by political violence. Early Life and Education: The Makerere Economist Born on November 15, 1931, in Gatuyaini, Othaya, Kibaki was raised in a devout Kikuyu family. Unlike Kenyatta or Moi, Kibaki didn’t carry the wounds of early loss or deep poverty — though his upbringing was modest. He attended Mang’u High School and later Makerere University in Uganda, where he studied economics, political science, and history. ...