Post-Election Conflicts and Gender-Based Violence in Rift Valley, Kenya

Electoral processes are perhaps the most vulnerable stages in a country's domestic political cycle. Uncertainty, tension, righteousness, and indignation often breed anger and violence during an electoral period. Rift Valley is one of the regions in Kenya that experienced the 2007 post-election violence, the Rift Valley area has a historical division along ethnic lines pitting the two dominating communities (Kalenjin and Kikuyu) against each other. Rift Valley was the epicenter of violence and displacement of persons in and around the 1992 and the 1997 general elections and also the heartland of the violence which erupted after the flawed and disputed presidential election in December 2007. Often, election violence is gendered. This implies that both men and women can be victims of electoral violence on the grounds of their gender. Therefore, the main objective of the study is to analyze the relationship between election conflicts and gender-bred violence in Rift Valley Kenya, with a specific focus on the 2007 election and it ramifications. The specific objectives of the study are: to analyze the links between ethnicity and gender-based violence during the 2007 post-election conflict in Rift Valley, Kenya; to examine the effect of the GBV on victims during the 2007 post-election in Rift Valley Kenya, and their responses over time; to assess institutional responses toward the prevention of gender-based violence during the post-election conflict in Rift Valley, Kenya. This study was guided by the pluralism theory as the main anchor to explain the concept of conflict. In addition, the feminism theory was used to complement the pluralism theory by bringing in the concept of GBV as caused by post-election violence. It employed a cross-sectional survey and was a purely qualitative study, the study targeted residents (4,739 from the 2019 national census in Kenya) of the Burnt Forest Area in Rift Valley. Stratified random sampling and purposive sampling were employed to determine the sample population. Qualitative data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. An interview guide was used to collect primary data. Secondary data was collected from published and unpublished sources of information that include books, journals, public records, articles, magazines, newspaper articles, among other literary sources. A qualitative approach to data analysis was adopted for the study. The analysis process involved three steps, the first was understanding the data collected, focusing on the analysis, and categorizing the information into thanes. The findings of the stud) were presented in narration form. The study established that ethnic prejudice was a key motivator for GBV dining the 2007 post-election violence. Physical and psychological effects, relocation of the victims and closure of businesses were identified as the effect of GBV during the 2007 post-election violence. Institutional responses were identified by the study and police officers were acknowledged as being ineffective in responding to GBV in the Burnt Forest Area. The study suggest that better strategies out to be formulated by the government in case of a reoccurrence of such violence, lastly, the study suggests that further research out to be conducted on ethnic prejudice and GBV in other part of Kenya.