How the Failure of the Election System Contributed to Post-election Violence in Kenya's Previous 'Democratic' Elections?

1. What is the target population? How will the data be collected?

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The target population in this study will be political analysts, members of the IEBC, judiciary, legislatures, local and international observers and voters. The data will be collected using open-ended questionnaires.

2.Kindly with clarity define the research problem? What is the research question to be answered in this research? What is the need for this study and importance of this study?

The aim of this study is to assess how the failure of the election system contributed to post-election violence in Kenya's previous 'democratic' elections (I have put democratic in quotes because with the exception of the 2002 general elections, the other elections from 1992 to 2017 have been marred by various irregularities, pre-and post-election violence). The research question that will be answered in this research is: Why are some young developing and democratic nations such as Kenya unable to form effective electoral systems that ensure that there are free and fair elections as is the case in countries such as Namibia? What are the existing political differences, and frameworks, and how can they be addressed? (this research question has been effectively broken down into three sub-questions that have been included in the paper under: RESEARCH QUESTIONS). They are:

1. If young democracies such as Kenya change their electoral systems from a majority to a more proportional system will it lead to peaceful elections in future?
2. How can these countries ensure they develop consolidated democratic institutions that will reduce a call for violence in the event that political leaders and voters are dissatisfied with the election outcome?
3. What forms of interventions can the internal and external actors initiate in order to reduce or control election-related violence while strengthening the electoral processes, and their potential in terms of improving the legitimacy and effectiveness of the electoral system?

The need and importance of this study is: The research project proposal emphasizes on the need of a country to implement an effective election system that is not susceptible to manipulation. They guarantee all the stakeholders in an election (the political participants and their parties, voters, and local and international observers) that the election process was free and fair. The voters, for instance, should believe that when they are exercising their democratic right, their decision will be respected, the process will be transparent, and only legitimate leaders in accordance with the election results will be allowed to hold the positions of power that they were elected to serve. In the past, the country has blamed post-election violence on the ethnic diversity of the country. However, it is important to point out that this is not the case as there have been political mergers formed by once bitter political and tribal rivals, a case in point, the Kikuyus and the Kalenjin. Therefore, the problem with the country's post-election violence is 'deeper' than ethnic diversity. I believe it is based on an ineffective electoral system.

3. Explain how the research question will advance scholarly debate. What will scholars learn from the research which they didn't know before? How will the research be applied in industry practice? What is innovative about the research?

Existing literature especially the one involving the post-election violence situation in Kenya focuses on ethnic diversity, and political rivalry between key politicians in the country. They normally rely on the 2002 general elections in Kenya where the opposition leaders united to form a coalition from different tribes, and it ensured no political violence. However, this election can be considered to be an outlier in respect to the elections that preceded it, and those that were conducted after 2002. The major problem is that the country has a weak electoral system. This can be attested by what was witnessed in the 2007, 2013, and 2017 (the 2 elections August and October). In this research, it will focus on the electoral system, why the reforms have failed to improve it, and provide evidence from successful African (in terms of conducting peaceful elections), and developed countries on how to build a successful electoral system. The innovativeness of this research lies on the fact that it seeks to develop an electoral system that can be implemented in the country, which guarantees or ensures that there are peaceful, free, fair, and transparent elections in future even beginning in 2022. It is important for the country to develop a fully independent electoral system that cannot be manipulated by the incumbent government to their favor in terms of the election results.

4.Explain how exactly AND WHY: DATA WOULD BE COLLECTED? data collected would be interpreted? who will will be interviewed and how many will be interviewed? what kind of questions will be posed ? what will be learned from these interviews ? the rationale for the appropriateness of the method and design in accomplishing research study goals and and answering research purposes and research questions ?

In this research, it will use questionnaires as the main tool for data collection. Questionnaires will be appropriate for the research participants as it will not affect their tight schedules. They also ensure that the participant is honest in his or her responses based on their anonymity. The people who will take part in this research are political analysts, members of the IEBC, judiciary, legislatures, local and international observers and voters. The researcher plans to have approximately 500 participants. The questions posed will depend on the research participants. For instance:

Political analysts- the questions will center about what is the problem with the current and past electoral systems that have been used in this country (Kenya), and what are the best measures that can be used to improve the future electoral system.

Members of the IEBC- the questions for this group of research participants will focus on the challenges that they are facing in ensuring that they conduct a free and fair election process, and what changes can be done.

Judiciary- The questions will focus on the role that they can play in ensuring that the electoral system can be trusted by the politicians and voters.

Legislators- The questions will focus on what problems and benefits they see in the current electoral system, and what can be done to improve it.

Local and International observers- The focus of their questions will be on their observations of the country's electoral system, in comparison with other countries that are considered peaceful.

Voters- In this group, the researcher will develop questions that focus on their trust level of the current electoral system, the problems they have identified, and how these problems can be solved.

A mixed methods approach will help the researcher to gather more information from the research participants than if he selected either a quantitative or qualitative approach. Personalized interviews will only be conducted to IEBC officials, local and international observers, and some political analysts. This is because their insight, and knowledge level is important for this research.

5. Explain how research connects to peace and security issues?

The research project proposal emphasizes on the need of a country to implement an effective election system that is not susceptible to manipulation. They guarantee all the stakeholders in an election (the political participants and their parties, voters, and local and international observers) that the election process was free and fair. The voters, for instance, should believe that when they are exercising their democratic right, their decision will be respected, the process will be transparent, and only legitimate leaders in accordance with the election results will be allowed to hold the positions of power that they were elected to serve. In the event that certain contestants feel that there were some irregularities or malpractices in the election system, they should be allowed to present their evidence to the judicial system, which possesses the power to overturn the election results if there is enough evidence to warrant such a judgment. This will eliminate the causative factors that may lead a certain community or supporters of a political leader or party to participate in violence.

6. Explain what impact the research will have on adding new knowledge and possible solutions to research problem questions?

Post-election violence is mainly as a result of the following four factors: the strength of democracy in a country, the kind of electoral system that is in place, the position of large ethnic groups or coalitions of the main ethnic groups in relation to power, and economic inequality in a country. Young democracies such as Kenya, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Uganda, and Zimbabwe have histories of post-election violence. However, other African countries such as Benin and Namibia mainly conduct election polls peacefully. In this paper, it will illustrate how different electoral systems can increase the risk of election-related violence. For instance, there are countries that elect their leaders through the use of a 'First Past the Post' system. This is a form of majoritarian electoral system in which the voters elect their preferred leaders among the individual politicians. The United States uses this form of elections whereby, a candidate is declared a winner if he or she gets the most votes in a specific electoral district. There is also proportional representation electoral system. The voters are presented with a list of candidates from the existing political parties. The parties will gain seats in parliament based on the number of their candidates who will elections in the stipulated regions.

A majority of the African countries use a majority-win system to determine the winners of elections, and this system is highly likely to result in violence than in countries that have implemented proportional systems. Why is this the case? In majority systems, they induce a winner-takes-it-all dynamic. The reason as to why these leads to violence in African countries, and the same is not experienced in developed countries such as the US is that their democratic institutions such as the electoral governing body, and judiciary are not fully independent. The existence of formal electoral institutions helps in guiding the political behavior and electoral dynamics. In countries that have consolidated democratic institutions the threat of an electoral defeat is not sufficient to motivate the use of violence. Such societies accepted the mechanisms of democracy, politicians respect the election results even when it makes them feel unhappy, and therefore a country's democracy is self-enforcing.

The researcher paper will show that in a majority of African countries such as Kenya, the formal electoral rules are controlled by informal institutions, which increase the stakes of the election. In these countries, politics is dominated by patron-client relationships whereby the political candidates reward their supporters with cash, access to jobs, land, economic empowerment, and infrastructure development. This means that political power results in economic benefits for the politicians, their families, and ethnic kin. It raises the stakes of each for politicians to be winners as they will control the state's resources, and this increases the likelihood of election violence as the supporters of the different political candidates feel that they have a lot to lose in the event that their preferred leader (s) loses an election. A winner takes it all system increases ethnic divisiveness and economic inequality.

This paper will help political leaders, analysts, voters, and all other election stakeholders have a better understanding of why the ele...