Challenges of Elections Management to security in a regional complex: Kenya’s 2017 Election in East Africa

Abstract

Security in different regions of the world is a complex endeavour. The best way to describe regions made of states is „regional complex‟, this is because it is a composition of states, entities that have ever changing and clashing interests which are best achieved through interdependency. Among other security issues in world regions, election management has never been out rightly a serious challenge to security. In the aftermath of Kenya‟s 2007 election management, the East Africa region witnessed what this research considers a Regional Security Complex (RSC) with many challenges which this study attempted to interrogate. The challenges of elections management tended to affect the operations of the progressively building regional East African Community (EAC) among others since a focal partner‟s stability was at stake to the extent of hampering trade (imports and exports), transportation, and manufacture. In addition to these, it affected some people to extents of becoming refugees. To make the study useful for researchers in as far as challenges of elections management to security in a regional complex is concerned, the author made attempts to; find causes of insecurity in East Africa region, examine how Kenya’s 2007 election’s management effects replicated to security of her neighbouring countries, analyze the general effects of Kenya’s 2007 electoral management to neighbouring countries, and finally, it assessed the spillover effects of election management insecurity to neighbouring countries. Through these objectives, it became apparent that causes of insecurity in world‟s geographically interlinked states have similarities, challenges of elections management to security in a regional complex such as East Africa are affected by the stability of focal states, and that cross border spillovers affect power structures of states and ultimately regional politics as in Africa‟s young regionalization. Indeed, issues of national security in the interdependent world are international security by nature. This research used a case study design purposively conducted and by collecting data using questionnaires across the study scope. The SPSS tool aided the researcher in additional analysis.