Local government in Kenya, 1958-2002

2010年8月，在公众的普遍热情和乐观中，肯尼亚颁布了新宪法。宪法的一个关键要素是强调权力下放。肯尼亚之前的宪法曾多次因将财富和权力集中在国家中心而受到批评；人们普遍预期，新宪法将扭转这种中央集权的局面，并更广泛地传播权力和财富。权力下放的主要机制是建立47个县政府，每个县政府都有一名选举产生的省长和一个议会。这些县政府保证至少分享政府总收入的15%，希望这些县政府将在肯尼亚政治中创造全新的活力，这一新级别政府的发展将成为肯尼亚未来十年政治变革的核心。这项拟议的研究将提供对早期与地方政府进行的实验的历史性理解。这将为参与建立新的权力下放地方政府进程的政策制定者以及预计将密切参与支持这一进程的捐助国政府和国际机构提供具有潜在巨大价值的见解。因为拟议中的地方政府体系绝非史无前例。肯尼亚于1963年获得独立，县议会政府的结构是在很长一段时间内发展起来的，最初它们自己享有相当大的增收权力。博士生项目旨在回答一个直接而紧迫的关键问题：地方政府的这一制度是如何被破坏的，以至于到20世纪80年代末，肯尼亚的县议会已经成为腐败和效率低下的代名词？在回答这个问题时，该项目将与富有且经常引起争议的关于后殖民时期肯尼亚国家的学术研究进行接触，并提供新的贡献。这在很大程度上与威权中央集权的政治文化的出现有关，这种文化与地方一级的政治民族化有关，随着时间的推移，这种民族化变得更加强烈。但它几乎没有提供任何关于地方政府问题的讨论，以及为什么这显然未能抵制中央集权。通过采用公开的历史方法，该项目将展示扩展的历史研究在为政策制定者提供有用见解方面的价值。非洲的治理倡议因缺乏对当地情况的了解而受到批评，支持这类倡议的双边和多边机构无法开展建立有历史基础的理解所需的那种长期和有重点的研究工作。这一研究项目将为产生有用知识的协作方法提供一个模型。这项研究将利用广泛的文献记录，包括非洲研究小组在FCO持有的公开资料来源，肯尼亚国家档案馆的材料，以及对参与地方政府各级工作的个人的采访--作为政治家、公务员、政党或公民社会活动家以及选民和差饷缴纳人。这项研究将产生一系列针对学术和非学术用户的成果：会议论文和一篇文章、一篇博士论文、针对政策制定者和参与发展新的县政府系统的现任公务员和顾问的演讲和书面简报。与FCO和英国国际发展部开展的治理支持工作密切联系，将有助于接触这些用户。该项目还将为未来这种合作伙伴关系提供一个模式，并将为学生提供独特的培训和可转移的技能

In August 2010, Kenya's new constitution was promulgated, amidst widespread public enthusiasm and optimism. A key element of the constitution is the emphasis on devolution. Kenya's previous constitution had been repeatedly criticised for concentrating wealth and power in the centre of the country; there is a widespread expectation that the new constitution will reverse that centralization, and spread both power and wealth more widely. The main mechanism for devolution is the creation of forty-seven county governments, each with an elected governor and an assembly. Guaranteed a share of at least 15% of total government revenue, it is hoped that these county governments will create an entirely new dynamic in Kenyan politics, and the development of this new level of government will be at the centre of political change in Kenya over the next decade. The proposed research will provide an historicized understanding of earlier experiments with local government. This will offer insights of potentially enormous value to the policy-makers involved in the process of developing the new devolved local government, and to donor governments and international agencies who are expected to be closely involved in supporting this process. For the proposed system of local government is by no means unprecedented. Kenya came to independence in 1963 with a structure of county council governments that had been developed over an extended period, and which initially enjoyed substantial revenue-raising powers of their own. The project of the doctoral student is intended to answer a key question, of direct and pressing relevance: how was it that this system of local government was undermined, so that by the end of the 1980s county councils in Kenya had become a byword for corruption and inefficiency? In answering this question, the project will engage with, and offer new contributions to, the rich and often contentious scholarship on the post-colonial Kenyan state. Much of this has been concerned with the emergence of a political culture of authoritarian centralism, associated with an ethnicization of politics at a local level which became more intense over time. But very little of it has offered any discussion of the question of local government, and why this apparently failed to resist centralization. In taking an overtly historical approach, the project will demonstrate the value of extended historical research in providing usable insights to policy-makers. Governance initiatives in Africa have been criticized for their lack of understanding of local circumstance, and the bilateral and multi-lateral agencies which support such initiatives are not in a position to undertake the sort of prolonged and focussed research work which is required to develop a historically-grounded understanding. This research project will offer a model for a collaborative approach to produce usable knowledge. The research will draw on an extensive documentary record, including open sources held by the Africa Research Group at the FCO, and material at the Kenya National Archives, and on interviews with individuals who were involved in local government at various levels - as politicians, as civil servants, as party or civil society activists, and as voters and ratepayers. The research will produce a range of outputs, aimed at both academic and non-academic users: conference papers and an article, a doctoral thesis, presentations and written briefings aimed at policy-makers and current civil servants and advisors who are involved in the development of the new system of county governments. Close association with the governance support work carried out by FCO and DfID will assist with access to these users. The project will also provide a model for future partnerships of this kind, and will provide the student with a unique training and transferable skills in under