Kenya comes to Jyväskylä

Just received the following invitation to my e-mail from the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy:

GUEST LECTURE: DR GODWIN MURUNGA: "SPONTANEOUS OR PREMEDITATED: THE ROOTS OF POST ELECTION PROTESTS IN KENYA"

Thursday, 12 November 2009 from 14-16, MaB102

Summary of Presentation:

On 27th December 2007, Kenyans went to the polls to elect civic leaders, members of parliament and the president in what turned out to be a very smooth and peaceful process. But on the 30th December 2007, the ‘winner’ of the presidential race was announced in a controversial manner following a vote tallying process that was anything but transparent and fair.  The country exploded into protests and violence as had never been witnessed before since independence. In explaining the character and manifestations of the protests and violence, two general positions dominate. There are those who see the violence as a spontaneous response to a flawed tallying process while others consider it premeditated and organized by the political class. This lecture will focus instead on the motives and motivations of actors and perpetrators to illustrate that there is no fine line distinguishing one form of protest and violence from the other.

Godwin R. Murunga teaches in the Department of History, Archaeology and Political Studies at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. He is is a member of the Executive Committee of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). and has written and published extensively on Democratization in Kenya, Gender Politics and Conflict in East Africa. Most recently, Dr Murunga has edited two books entitled "Kenya: Struggles for Democrac", (Dakar and London: CODESRIA in Association with Zed Books, 2007) and a collection of Issa Shivji’s essays entitled "Where is Uhuru? Reflections on the Struggle for Democracy in Africa" (Oxford: Fahamu Books, 2009). Dr. Murunga is currently a visiting scholar at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden.

All those who are interested are invited to attend. Welcome to MaB102 on Thursday, 12.11 from 14-16!