Democracy, Constitutionalism, and Politics in Africa: Historical Contexts, Developments, and Dilemmas

307 Pages·2017·2.94 MB·English

by  Eunice N. Sahle (eds.)

CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN
POLITICAL ECONOMY
DEMOCRACY,
CONSTITUTIONALISM,
AND POLITICS IN AFRICA
HISTORICAL CONTEXTS,
DEVELOPMENTS, AND DILEMMAS
EDITED BY
EUNICE N. SAHLE
Contemporary African Political Economy
Series Editor
Eunice N. Sahle
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Aim of the series
Advisory Board: Bertha O. Koda, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania;
Brij Maharaj, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; Thandika
Mkandawire, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK;
Cassandra Veney, United States International University-Africa, Nairobi;
John Pickles, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; and
Wisdom J. Tettey, University of British Columbia, Canada. Contemporary
African Political Economy (CAPE) publishes social science research that
examines the intersection of political, social, and economic processes in
contemporary Africa. The series is distinguished especially by its focus on
the spatial, gendered, and cultural dimensions of these p rocesses, as well
as its emphasis on promoting empirically situated research. As consul-
tancy-driven work has emerged in the last two decades as the dominant
model of knowledge production about African politics and economy,
CAPE offers an alternate intellectual space for scholarship that challenges
theoretical and empirical orthodoxies and locates political and economic
processes within their structural, historical, global, and local contexts. As
an interdisciplinary series, CAPE broadens the field of traditional political
economy by welcoming contributions from the fields of Anthropology,
Development Studies, Geography, Health, Law, Political Science,
Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies. The Series Editor and
Advisory Board particularly invite submissions focusing on the following
thematic areas: urban processes; democracy and c itizenship; agrarian
structures, food security, and global commodity chains; health, educa-
tion, and development; environment and climate change; social move-
ments; immigration and African diaspora formations; natural resources,
extractive industries, and global economy; media and socio-political pro-
cesses; development and globalization; and conflict, displacement, and
refugees.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14915
Eunice N. Sahle
Editor
Democracy,
Constitutionalism,
and Politics in Africa
Historical Contexts, Developments, and Dilemmas
Editor
Eunice N. Sahle
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Contemporary African Political Economy
ISBN 978-1-137-55591-5 ISBN 978-1-137-55592-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55592-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957338
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A
cknowledgments
This volume would not have seen the light of day without the com-
mitment of the scholars whose work appears in its various chapters.
Consequently, I extend special thanks to all of them for their extraor-
dinary commitment to the project. Further, thanks to each of them for
their patience as the project evolved and for their prompt responses
to my queries. I would like to particularly thank former Chief Justice
and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya, Dr. Willy Mutunga and
Professor and Senator Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o for taking time out of
their busy schedules to respond to my requests and for meeting with me
during my research work in Kenya.
Financial and other forms of support from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill contributed greatly to the publication of this
book. A research grant from the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
made this project possible. Consequently, I thank the Dean’s office and
Distinguished Professor Jonathan Hartlyn, the Senior Associate Dean for
Social Sciences and Global Programs for their contributions to this proj-
ect. Further, a leadership grant awarded by the Institute for the Arts and
Humanities (IAH), under the auspices of the Ruel W. Tyson Academic
Leadership Program (ALP) made significant contributions to the publica-
tion of this volume. As such, my thanks to Professors Mark Katz (Director
of the IAH), Professor Kim Strom-Gottfried (ALP’s Director), and Rob
Kramer (IAH’s Senior Leadership Consultant) for their support during
my time as an ALP fellow.
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Several colleagues at Palgrave Macmillan made significant contributions
to the publication of this volume. As such, I thank Sara Doskow who was
there at the beginning of this project for enthusiastically supporting it. I
would also like to express my gratitude to Chris Robinson, Dr. Anca Pusca,
and Anne Schult for their support and for seeing the book through its final
production stages. Last but not least, I am grateful to Kari Dahlgren and
Wilma Mallya for their assistance as I worked on this volume. I am also
very grateful to Angela Pietrobon for her outstanding work as the copy
editor for this project.
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
Eunice N. Sahle
2 Africa’s “Constitutionalism Revival”: False Start
or New Dawn? 13
H. Kwasi Prempeh
3 Some Perspectives on Durability and Change
Under Modern African Constitutions 61
Charles Manga Fombad
4 Promoting Gender Equality in the Era of Democracy
and Constitutionalism in Southern Africa 101
Eunice N. Sahle
5 Dressing and Addressing the Kenyan Judiciary:
Reflecting on the History and Politics of Judicial Attire
and Address 131
Willy Mutunga
vii
viii CONTENTS
6 The African Union and Article 4(h): Understanding
Changing Norms of Sovereignty and Intervention
in Africa Through an Integrated Levels-of-Analysis
Approach 167
Jason Warner
7 Electoral Democracy and Election Coalitions
in Former Settler Colonies in Africa: Is Democracy
on Trial or in Reverse Gear in Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire
and Zimbabwe? 205
Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o
8 Major Challenges of Governance in Africa Today 241
Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja
9 State, Civil Society and Democracy in Kenya: Kenyans
for Peace with Truth and Justice (KPTJ)
and the Political Crisis of 2007–2008 265
Anders Sjögren, Onyango Oloo, and Shailja Patel
Index 297
n c
otes on ontributors
Charles  Manga  Fombad is Professor of Law and heads the African
Constitutional Law Unit at the Institute for International and Comparative
Law (ICLA) of the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria. He is the author/
editor of 10 books and has published more than 75 articles in local and
international peer-reviewed journals. He has also published more than two
dozen book chapters as well as numerous other publications and conference
papers. He has received several awards for his publications. Fombad is a fel-
low of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) and a mem-
ber of the editorial board of several international journals and a member of
many professional associations. He is a member of the Steering Committee
of the African Network of Constitutional Lawyers (ANCL), and convenor
of its working group on Teaching of Constitutional law in Africa, and is the
Vice President of the International Association of Constitutional Law
(IACL) and a co-convenor of the research group on the constitutional
dimensions of political parties and political rights. His research interests are
in comparative African constitutional law, media law, the African Union and
legal history, especially issues of legal harmonization.
Willy Mutunga is Kenya’s former Chief Justice and President of the
Supreme Court, Kenya. He is also a Senior Counsel of the Kenyan Bar and
Former Chair of the Law Society of Kenya. He obtained a PhD in jurispru-
dence in 1992 from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in
Toronto, Canada. He obtained both his bachelor of law (honors) and mas-
ter of law degrees from the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He
joined the University of Nairobi as a lecturer in the Faculty of Law in
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