APRM • SECOND COUNTRY REVIEW REPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA CHAPTER THREE 3. DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL GOVERNANCE 3.1 Overview 64. The last decade (2006-2016) has been one in which Kenya has moved from deep political crisis to experiments in democratic renewal. The hallmark of the period has included a capacity of the elite and the people, assisted by the international system, to restore order, good governance, democracy, and the march toward development. The result has been a largely commendable display of ingenuity and restraint geared to move the nation more in the direction of civility and restrained engagement for the restoration of peace through a process of negotiations leading to innovative constitutional and institutional re-engineering to restore and sustain Kenya’s interrupted march toward modern, multi-party democratic statehood. 65. It is to the credit of Kenyans and key stakeholders in the international community that the country was able in the wake of 2007 post-election crisis to institute a thoroughgoing process of immediately restoring peace and embarking on reconciliation by early 2008, followed by more fundamental efforts to re-craft the bases for more inclusive and participatory governance that addressed perceptions of deepening ethno-regional and class inequalities and entrenched hegemonies at the political, social and economic levels, along with attendant anti-democratic and anti-developmental consequences that threatened the peace of the nation. 66. The Government’s role in all this has been captured in the words of the second Country Self-Assessment Report (2015, p.636), that: • 67. Within the framework of the 2008 National Accord, the government demonstrated its commitment to the implementation of long-standing issues, including constitutional and institutional reforms, police and judicial reforms, socio-economic inequalities, corruption, accountability and youth unemployment and other issues. This chapter assesses efforts by all stakeholders to address issues of democracy and political governance in Kenya during this period (2006-2016) within the framework of the second Country Review Mission (CRM). The specific objectives covered here involve reviewing Kenya’s experience in the period in the following areas: • Constitutional democracy and the rule of law; • The separation of powers; • Prevention and reduction of intra and inter-state conflicts; • Promotion and protection of civil and political rights; | 73 |