What Kenyan protests tell about economic management and the politics of reforms

africanistperspective.com

24 points·mooreds··4 comments

> Elites for the most part did not democratize on their own terms and stand to lose from open electoral politics

On a slightly related note, I'm under the impression there are many countries with disillusioned youth, combined with relatively entrenched incompetence/corruption in their respective governments. Are there any recent examples of countries that reformed their government without requiring a violent upheaval? (Tunisia looks like a floundering example?). Vested interests prefer to remain vested, so I'm looking for examples where "discussion and debates" have secured long term reforms against established stakeholders.

South Korea and Taiwan reformed from authoritarianism into prosperous democracies without violence.

Without civil wars. Both experienced substantial street violence in the transition to democracy. And only Taiwan did it without US military forces in the country to influence the political process.

The protests were caused by Ruto’s tax policies, now he has reverted those I think, but young Kenyan’s still like to go do mandamano (riots).

They planned one for legalizing weed and another one for Nairobi airport (the employees there really like to screw people over and you can be asked over 1k EUR to be allowed to leave as an African, usually they dont bother Europeans).

Overall this is a bit hurting the tourism sector, Mombasa some hotels were pretty empty even couple weeks ago, Watamu does not seem to be impacted too much, but in general the season is still starting.

As for anyone who is thinking if Kenya is safe to visit, the answer is YES - just dont go for a stroll in Nairobi during mandamano

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