The Politics of Social Policy in Kenya

Since the introduction of the multi-party system in 1992, Kenyan political parties generally had a low programmatic profile and were clearly personalized. Voting was rather based on neopatrimonialism and regional affiliation than on policies. The inglorious climax was the violence after the presidential elections in 2007 when more than 1’000 people were killed and over 300’000 displaced.

It was thus remarkable when the newly aligned major political camps released programmatic manifestos for the 2013 elections. They included some claims in the field of health, without converging into a coherent vision of social welfare. The financial feasibility of these grand pledges was strongly doubted by Kenyans, as was the winning coalitions’ interest and capacity in implementing them.

However, barely three months after the election, President Kenyatta declared free public maternity services, a first step towards free primary healthcare as designated by the Jubilee coalition manifesto. Considering the human and financial resources, there is still ample ground for scepticism concerning the long-term viability of this policy. Nevertheless, this is a significant development in a rather sclerotic social welfare system.

What are the determinants of this social policy change? Functionalist, institutionalist, economic determinist, modernisation or power resources theories have limited explanatory power. Preliminary evidence from interviews with stakeholders in Kenya and other sources point towards the importance of politics. The recent post-election violence questioned both domestic and international legitimacy. Including free maternity care in the manifesto and implementing it quickly is on one side an attempt to restore international legitimacy, as maternal health is an important issue on the international agenda (MDG5). Given the neck-and-neck electoral race of the two big coalitions, it on the other hand also attempted winning the support of smaller electoral groups and thus domestic legitimacy. Hence, catalysed by a serious electoral crisis, politics finally resulted in policies.