International Crisis Group
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Kenya| Horn of Africa
Detailed conflict history
CrisisWatch database
Recent reports and briefings

Crisis Group’s reporting focuses on Kenya’s political crisis and the need for a sustainable settlement including a program of power sharing, constitutional, legal and economic reform.

Following the announcement of the contested presidential election results on 30 December 2007 giving a second term to Mwai Kibaki, Kenya experienced its worst political crisis since independence. Over 1,000 people were killed and 300,000 were displaced in violence with inflammatory ethnic undertones. The violence shattered the country's reputation for stability and threatened to pull the region into further turmoil. It also illustrated the depths of the wounds inflicted during the 24-year rule of Daniel Arap Moi, who dominated Kenyan politics until Kibaki’s election in 2002, and the urgent need to address key issues of land and wealth distribution.

Relative calm returned to the country following the April 2008 swearing in of a coalition cabinet of Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU) and Raila Odinga’s opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), with Kibaki as President and Odinga as Prime Minister. The power-sharing deal, signed 28 February and mediated by an African Union-mandated team led by Kofi Annan, and the creation of three commissions to review the electoral framework and investigate both the violence and injustices committed since independence are steps in the right direction. Yet more will be required to restore people’s trust in their government and rebuild the foundation of stable democracy. A legitimately-elected government should remain the goal, but radical institutional and economic reforms are needed, as well as an internationally-monitored transitional justice and disarmament process, to prevent resumption of violence and heal the country's wounds.

Our reports on Kenya are listed below, starting with the most recent. You can also search for relevant reports using the search box in the top right hand side of this page.

Articles, op-eds, speeches and media releases can be found under the media section.

For a detailed history of the conflict, please click here.


Recent reports & briefings