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6 - Contentious Land Narratives and the Escalation of Violence

from Part II - Determinants of Election Violence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2020

Kathleen Klaus
Affiliation:
University of San Francisco
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Summary

Chapter 6 analyzes the escalation and production of electoral violence, with a focus on Kenya’s 2007–2008 postelection. The main question asks how land narratives shape the escalation and occurrence of violence. Using a process-tracing approach based on qualitative evidence from three communities in Nakuru County, the chapter demonstrates how land narratives contribute to the production of election violence. I take the reader through four stages in the escalation of electoral violence. These stages include: (1) the mobilization of land narratives, (2) the trigger event, (3) local escalation, and (4) scale-shift. As part of this analysis, the chapter explains how different logics of violence, from preemption, opportunities to alter the status quo, revenge, and desire for material gain play out at these different stages. Broadly, the chapter shows how local land narratives can provide a key discursive tool through which both elites and ordinary civilians establish motives for organizing and engaging in violence.

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Chapter
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Political Violence in Kenya
Land, Elections, and Claim-Making
, pp. 173 - 211
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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