History explains election violence in Kenya, Zambia

Why do the first multiparty elections after authoritarian rule turn violent in some countries? That’s the question we set out to answer in our research on electoral violence and the legacy of authoritarian rule in Kenya and Zambia.

We compared Zambia’s founding elections in 1991, which were largely peaceful and Kenya’s in 1992. During these polls there was large-scale state-instigated electoral violence along ethnic lines. Our analysis suggests that violence was a more viable electoral strategy in Kenya than in Zambia because of the type of rule that existed in Kenya before the polls. This created political legacies that underpinned political competition and mobilisation during the first multiparty elections.