SUMMARY
In 1992, Kenya faced, for the first time after decades of one-party rule, multi-party elections on both, the regional and the national level (parliament and President). Standing President Daniel Arap Moi - in office since 1978 and ethnic Kalenjin - ran successfully for re-election. Multi-party politics was introduced in Kenya in December 1991 due to high pressure from international donors and against the will of President Moi. Moi constantly warned that a multi-party system would lead to ethnic tensions and destabilize the country. Opposition leaders accused Moi of inflaming ethnic tension himself, in order to find an excuse to call off the elections. In fact, several non-state conflicts occurred in Kenya in 1992, one being between the Kalenjin and the Luhya (see also the Kalenjin – Lou, Kisii conflict, and the Kalenjin – Kikuyu conflict). In Kenya, the importance of elections is intensified by a Westminster-style constitution and the winner-takes-all principle, leaving the minority with little means to defend its interest. This is aggravated by a tradition of the candidate winning the elections afterward strongly favoring its own people at the expense of other groups.
In addition to the political reasons, ethnic tensions in Kenya are linked to the issue of land. In Kenya access to land is central for most people. Different systems, corruption, and other problems have led to many areas having double or triple registrations over the same land. This struggle for land is especially important in densely populated areas such as the Rift Valley, the Western Province, and Nyanza. With the increasing ethnic rhetoric that occurred in the context of the elections, the land issue – previously a non-ethnic matter - became more and more linked to ethnicity.
Concretely, the Kalenjin supported President Moi and his party KANU (Kenya African National Union) who had ruled Kenya over the last decades. The combination of the above-mentioned factors lead to a wide-spread fear among Kalenjin of losing influence, privileges, and resources, should another candidate win. The position of the Luhya was less clear, since none of the candidates was ethnic Luhya. Therefore, the Luhya did not have a direct interest at stake, yet feared to further loose influence and means to defend their interests, notably concerning the land question.
The violence was characterized by concentrated attacks from members of one group on villages of members of the other group. The attackers, armed with bows, arrows and firearms and often wearing unofficial uniforms, usually burned the houses and occasionally shot the inhabitants to death. Such attacks created great insecurity, destroyed the livelihood and forced thousands to (temporarily) flee. Oftentimes, an attack was followed by a similar retaliatory attack.
The non-state conflict between the Kalenjin and the Luhya is first included in UCDP data in 1992. In April of that year fighting between the two groups had resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.
